Record types taxonomy update (WIP)

[josh-chamberlain]

brainstorming

Context

The way the types are currently laid out, virtually no agency is going to have presence of each record type (to say nothing of quality).

Goals

• agencies have a reasonable chance of 100% presence of record types, at least in some categories
  • this does not address the quality of the data, a different matter
  • some record types, like "car GPS", are technically sometimes present/generated but almost never published.
• simpler, shorter list of types
  • combine similar types

Considerations

• Formally changing all these has numerous downstream effects, from the API to data dictionary to enums to front end logic. Will require careful consideration before making the change.
  • We could also add additional types of categorization, so that depending on the context they could be categorized differently.
• If we want to test how this looks, we can use front end sorting to mock it up without back end changes.
• options for categories:
  • topical, as now
  • according to their value in researching:
    • how the system is built + administered (budgets, employees, policies)
    • how the system is used (arrests, calls, dispatch)
    • individual cases

Current sort

We have a lot of record types, currently sorted according to their topic.

ID	Record Category	Category ID	Category Name
1	Accident Reports	1	Police & Public Interactions
2	Arrest Records	1	Police & Public Interactions
3	Calls for Service	1	Police & Public Interactions
4	Car GPS	1	Police & Public Interactions
5	Citations	1	Police & Public Interactions
6	Dispatch Logs	1	Police & Public Interactions
7	Dispatch Recordings	1	Police & Public Interactions
8	Field Contacts	1	Police & Public Interactions
9	Incident Reports	1	Police & Public Interactions
10	Misc Police Activity	1	Police & Public Interactions
11	Officer Involved Shootings	1	Police & Public Interactions
12	Stops	1	Police & Public Interactions
13	Surveys	1	Police & Public Interactions
14	Use of Force Reports	1	Police & Public Interactions
15	Vehicle Pursuits	1	Police & Public Interactions
16	Complaints & Misconduct	2	Info about Officers
17	Daily Activity Logs	2	Info about Officers
18	Training & Hiring Info	2	Info about Officers
19	Personnel Records	2	Info about Officers
20	Annual & Monthly Reports	3	Info about Agencies
21	Budgets & Finances	3	Info about Agencies
22	Contact Info & Agency Meta	3	Info about Agencies
23	Geographic	3	Info about Agencies
24	List of Data Sources	3	Info about Agencies
25	Policies & Contracts	3	Info about Agencies
26	Crime Maps & Reports	4	Agency-published Resources
27	Crime Statistics	4	Agency-published Resources
28	Media Bulletins	4	Agency-published Resources
29	Records Request Info	4	Agency-published Resources
30	Resources	4	Agency-published Resources
31	Sex Offender Registry	4	Agency-published Resources
32	Wanted Persons	4	Agency-published Resources
33	Booking Reports	5	Jails & Courts
34	Court Cases	5	Jails & Courts
35	Incarceration Records	5	Jails & Courts
36	Other	6	Other

[maxachis]

There may be ways to approach this without having to do a full-refactor.

One approach would be enabling different frontend-only grouping options: One could be topic-based, and one could be research-value based. We can then test out how that looks without having to implement any deeper changes.

Beyond that, I think a sample consolidation map could be useful. That would us think over this more concretely 🪨.