California has established impressive open data initiatives recently with Open Justice leading the way. The portal allows the public access to information about the state’s criminal justice system. The Secretary of State also introduced Power Search to improve searches on campaign finance. (Sunlight Foundation, October 7, 2015, by Emily Shaw)
In The Orange County Register, September 25, 2015, Lauren Galik, director of criminal justice reform at Reason Foundation, writes that the new website Open Justice will allow the public to obtain statistics on events such as police shootings of citizens. “Despite some imperfections, this database, as well as legislation requiring police departments to report information about in-custody deaths, should serve as a model for other states. Reform must come only after all of the basic facts are available. Without data, it’s impossible to know if there’s a problem or how it needs to be addressed,” writes Galik.