For the record
Public records about use of force and misconduct by California law enforcement officers are now searchable, thanks to the Police Records Access Project, a new database built by UC Berkeley and Stanford University. 
The first of its kind in the nation, the database vastly expands access to internal affairs records showing how agencies handle misconduct allegations and uses of force that result in death or serious injury.
A team of journalists, data scientists, lawyers and civil liberties advocates collected and vetted 1.5 million pages of public records, used generative AI to build the database and created a searchable user-interface from scratch.
Aditya Parameswaran, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, led work on the database at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science. “Here we have an amazing example of how generative AI — with humans in the loop — can be used for good,” he said.
Learn more: A new database on police use of force and misconduct in California makes public 1.5 million pages of once-secret police records (UC Berkeley Journalism)