The federal government makes it hard to track what agencies are doing. But it's often impossible to hide evidence—only to scatter it. This is what accountability looks like now.
The arrests of reporters Georgia Fort and Don Lemon for engaging in journalism are outrageous.
The Media and Democracy Project, and many other press freedom groups, joined this statement by the National Association of Black Journalists #NABJ
85% experienced law enforcement officers? The federal government's own payroll records say otherwise. Part 1 of a series examining ICE's hiring surge.
Source: Journalism lost its culture of sharing. “We crunched the numbers, and your hunch is right. In fact, it’s probably worse than you think. The data are clear: The open-source culture that defined an earlier era of online journalism has collapsed. Activity on GitHub has cratered. In 2016, news organizations posted more than 2,000 public projects to the code-sharing site. Last year, that […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/01/30/source-journalism-lost-its-culture-of-sharing/I used AI to analyze federal workforce data and fact-check the Trump administration's claims about ICE hiring. The government collects vast data on itself. When reconstructed, it reveals truth.
#police #LawEnforcement #misconduct #DataJournalism
'We highlight data projects that have helped document and investigate misconduct, as both data sources and as models for others who want to contribute to these collective efforts.'
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2026/01/26/police_misconduct/
Prison Policy Initiative: Resource spotlight: Data projects tracking police misconduct, use of force, and employment histories. “The need for law enforcement transparency, oversight, and accountability has never been clearer. We highlight data projects that have helped document and investigate misconduct, as both data sources and as models for others who want to contribute to these collective […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/01/29/resource-spotlight-data-projects-tracking-police-misconduct-use-of-force-and-employment-histories-prison-policy-initiative/
Prison Policy Initiative: Resource spotlight: Data projects tracking police misconduct, use of force, and employment histories. “The need for law enforcement transparency, oversight, and acco…
Three data points. That's all it took to fact-check DHS. Pay grade at entry + length of service + hire date = a model of who ICE actually deployed into communities.
DHS claims 85% of ICE surge hires are "experienced law enforcement officers." Federal payroll data tells a different story: 66.5% have no prior law enforcement experience. I analyzed 4,195 ICE hires. The numbers don't lie.
EricJHensal
The Media & Democracy Project
ResearchBuzz: Firehose
Calishat