Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office Dashboard Help Tabs
Dashboard Guide Available in Spanish Here
The Sheriff's Office data and information dashboard provides data related to crime addressed by the Sheriff's Office. An expression of our commitment to openness and community engagement, its intent is to empower those interested to explore and better understand crime, public safety, and wellness in the communities we serve.
The dashboard consists of five (5) pages: Crime Overview, Victim Demographics, Arrest Demographics, Traffic Overview, and Subject Control. Each page features a map, several metrics, and various ways to filter the data. It contains data for the three (3) prior years plus the current year. Crime data is updated weekly. Subject Control data is updated bi-weekly and the data only goes back to October 2022. Each page is interactive, meaning you can click on a component in a visualization, and it will filter other components on the page.
Below is a guide to dashboard components and interactions.
Dashboard Pages (5)
The Crime Overview page is the primary page and contains data for all verified crimes.
The Victim Demographics page presents data that gives insight about the victims of crimes against person by race, ethnicity, gender, age, and incident type.
The Arrest Demographics page displays data about arrestees including race, gender, age, and incident type. The data is extracted by the date the incident occurred, not the date of arrest.
The Traffic Crashes, Stops & Violations page contains a traffic overview for the Sheriff’s Office including the reason and outcome of the traffic stop, demographics of citizens involved, violation type, and number of crashes.
The Subject Control page presents data related to when deputies physically control a subject (Subject Control) or successfully de-escalate a situation with a show of force.
Dashboard Interactions
Upon opening, the dashboard will present the current year’s data. You can view previous year’s data using the "Select Year" drop down in the upper right corner of the dashboard.
The data on each page of the dashboard is interactive. You can click on any item and the rest of the dashboard will filter to show the data related to the item you selected. Click the data source again to un-filter the dashboard.
Tool Tips
A “tool tip” is a window that appears when hovering over a visualization. Most visualizations have a tool tip that provides additional details about the data.
Map Interactions
A data location map is present on every page. Each map is organized by zip code to protect victim information. You can view data for different areas by selecting a zip code on the map or selecting an area from the bubble chart below the map. Multiple areas can be selected by clicking and dragging on the map or holding down the Ctrl key and selecting multiple areas on the bubble chart. To remove the filters, click on an empty area on the map. To remove the filters on the bubble map, click the selected bubble again.
Crime Categories
Every offense is classified into a crime category. For example, any type of Aggravated Assault is in the Assault Offenses category. Each category can be expanded and filtered down further. Click on the category name to expand it. Then select the category name to filter for the entire category or select a specific offense within the category to filter by. To remove the filter, click on the category name again.
Selecting Multiple Objects
There are a few ways to select multiple data points on each page of the dashboard.
1. Click and drag your cursor across the objects you are trying to select
2. Hold down the control key on your keyboard and click on the objects you want to select
3. When available, use the filter drop downs
The available filters expand with the data. To expand the filter, you must first expand the data. To do this, expand the first category you want to look at and then hold down the control key on your keyboard and expand the other categories you want to view in the filter
NOTE
To clear all selected filters, use the reset button in the bottom right corner
Data Discrepancies
The source of the dashboard’s data are the reports created by investigating Deputy Sheriffs. As a part of a comprehensive case management process, reports are:
1. reviewed for general quality assurance and accuracy by supervisors (command) prior to final approval, and then
2. sent to a warrant detective for further review prior to being forwarded to the prosecutor’s office for their review and a charging decision.
Further, prior to uploading the data to the dashboard the raw information is reviewed by a command officer. Most discrepancies in the data are resolved during this comprehensive case management and review process. However, as the data is manually entered , human error is possible.
Data that is provided directly from the involved person to the investigating officer, including but not limited to race, gender, and age, is subject to inaccuracy and incompleteness. For example, Sheriff's Office personnel are not required to obtain a persons ethnicity nor is a person required to provide it if asked resulting in an increase in unknown values.
To ensure that you are viewing the most accurate data for your needs while navigating through and utilizing the dashboard, please be mindful of the filters you have selected and verify that only the filters you want are active.
For any additional questions you may have about the Dashboard, please visit our FAQ page.
We hope that you find the dashboard an empowering and useful tool to help understand the criminal and enforcement activity that your Sheriff’s Office responds to and engages in each and every day. You may direct feedback or questions regarding the dashboard to: [email protected].