With talk turned to race and the police, we thought it time to look at who is getting arrested in Hartford.
Any time data is used, it is necessary to explain what it does not tell us.
This map is based on arrests of adults from December 9-19, 2014. It includes what is reported in the Hartford Police Department’s arrest log; thus the information is only as accurate as what is listed there. We noticed two cases where the recorded race differed from the physical appearance of those individuals as seen in their Facebook profiles. The log categorizes those arrested as black, Hispanic, white, or other. We have seen no “biracial” category. So, from this data alone, we do not know if these were clerical errors, individuals with multiple racial identities forced to select one, or something else. This is being mentioned because any attempt to really understand this broader issue needs accurate information.
This data shows arrests, not convictions; it does not tell us about arrests of juveniles.
Taken by itself, areas with a high number of arrests should not be conflated with high crime areas. To get a more complete picture, one could peruse the Hartford Open Data page to see where police have been called; these calls do not always result in arrests. This is still incomplete, as not all crimes get reported; this is especially true when it comes to sexual assault. Something else to consider: crimes that occur on campuses do not always involve the HPD, so to get a better idea of those stats, one needs to look at how the nearby colleges report.
This map is interactive. You can zoom in to see the address of arrest location, as provided by the HPD. If you click on the tab, you will be provided with the arrested individual’s race, sex, date of birth, and charges. If the individual does not live in Hartford, the town or state of residence is provided.