DLP Dispatch #15
Hello, and welcome to the 15th edition of the Data Liberation Project’s newsletter. Inside: A big new dataset liberated, government documentation of disaster-housing and food-purchase databases, and our latest requests.
Liberated: Adult Maltreatment Report Data
In February 2023, the Data Liberation Project filed a request to the Administration for Community Living (ACL), seeking all records in the agency’s National Adult Maltreatment Reporting System (NAMRS), “the first comprehensive, national reporting system for adult protective services programs.”
We received the records last month and are releasing them today. Although no government data are perfect, these records are quite comprehensive, well structured, and reasonably documented.
Here’s what to know:
- NAMRS gathers data annually from each state (and territory) about the adult maltreatment reports and cases it has handled.
- States can provide case-level data or, failing that, higher-level aggregate statistics. (The majority of states provide case-level data these days.)
- The case-level records include anonymized information about each “client”, each maltreatment allegation and substantiation status, each investigation, each known perpetrator, and the relationship between victims and perpetrators.
- The NAMRS data also include some higher-level information about each of these agencies, such as the types of services they provide and the number of investigators they employ.
To get started with the records, read the DLP’s introductory documentation.
Close observers of the Data Liberation Project will notice something new in that documentation: A section where we’ve tried using the data to replicate the national statistics published in a recent NAMRS annual report. It helped us — and will hopefully also help you — to better understand the structure, strengths, and limitations of the records.
Many thanks to DLP volunteers Gustav Cappaert, Todd Feathers, pdtd, and Iris Zhong for their contributions to the documentation and statistical replication effort.
Liberated: Documentation of FEMA’s Disaster Housing Database
In September 2022, the Data Liberation Project sent the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) a request for data from — and documentation of — the systems it uses to track “direct housing” assistance provided to people affected by major disasters.
We haven’t received any of the data yet, but last month FEMA sent an “interim response” containing seven documents. They include 139 pages of unredacted user guides and reference documentation, providing some insight into how FEMA’s “Housing Operations Management Enterprise System” and “Direct Assistance, Replacement Assistance Consideration” databases work. (The release also included 100 pages of fully redacted materials.)
Liberated: Documentation of USDA’s Food Purchase Database
In November 2022, the Data Liberation Project sent the Department of Agriculture a request for data from — and documentation of — the agency’s “Web Based Supply Chain Management System” (WBSCM), which it uses for coordinating the purchase and distribution of federal food and commodity orders.
In conversations with the DLP, the agency said it was unable to export the data records requested; we agreed to re-focus the request on the documentation. The agency, however, initially refused to provide those records, citing FOIA exemptions 3 and 7(E). After the Data Liberation Project appealed this decision (with the assistance of the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic), the agency has begun to provide the records. They’re largely drawn from user trainings conducted between July 2014 and March 2024, and currently span 356 pages.
New FOIAs
Since the latest dispatch, we’ve filed two new requests. They seek:
- Housing discrimination complaints and cases, co-requested with Urvashi Uberoy.
- Army-run slot machines on military bases, co-requested with Molly Longman.
Liberated Data in the Wild
It’s always great — essential, even — to see people using the data we’ve liberated. So we were happy to learn that, last week, Investigate Midwest published graphics and findings based on the Organic Program enforcement data we liberated from the USDA (and noted in DLP Dispatch #14).
That’s all for now! Thank you for reading, and don’t hesitate to reply. Alternatively, fill out the volunteer form and/or suggestion form.
— Jeremy