finding facts

with data



ADAM PLAYFORD. @adamplayford


NATHANIEL LASH. @Nat_Lash

10/14/2015 | UF JOU 3101 with DAVIS / LaFORGIA




I'M ADAM




I'M NAT


WE WRITE:


STORIES

COMPUTER PROGRAMS

DATABASE QUERIES




why is

that a thing?



he said/she said

sucks

(sorry)


ADAM'S

life goal:

suck

less

(A LITTLE  every day)





proving things

helps me suck less



data is

how we

prove things


you only need...


  1. A theory

  2. A way to test it

  3. A computer



why should

i care?


our dirty secret:

data is the

easiest
differentiator




things you can't learn in 1 week


being...



MIKE LAFORGIA.

LANE DEGREGORY.

SANDRA PEDDIE.



things you can learn in 1 week



counting stuff in excel



in 1 semeseter:

basic programming

querying databases




in other words:

BETTER STORIES



also:

better jobs



ok SURE, MR. DATA GUYs

but how?





A THEORY

(OR HYPOTHESIS TESTING)

(WOW, THAT'S A LONG WORD.)




A THREAT FROM THE UNION




ELECTION DAY




THE HUNCH




The Post matched employee databases from the school district with county voter records. To ensure accuracy, reporters then checked hundreds of records by hand.



"ELECTION DAY CAME

AND THE VAST MAJORITY OF TEACHERS

DIDN'T SHOW UP."





Teacher turnout was 24 percent, the Post found. Although significantly higher than the turnout of other county voters, it wasn't enough to change the outcome of a single district race in August.






In the county, the belief that most teachers don't vote has been talked about -- quietly -- for years.

the rankings

42%: school librarians

33%: History Teachers

32%: Principals/asst. principals

29%: Music teachers

25%: Math teachers

24%: English teachers

22%: Physical ed teachers

20%: Elementary teachers



let's talk about

counting

Stand your ground


• People often go free under "stand your ground" in cases that seem to make a mockery of what lawmakers intended. One man killed two unarmed people and walked out of jail. Another shot a man as he lay on the ground. Others went free after shooting their victims in the back. In nearly a third of the cases the Times analyzed, defendants initiated the fight, shot an unarmed person or pursued their victim — and still went free.
Tampa Bay Times / Stand Your Ground project

stand your ground



In the most comprehensive effort of its kind, the Tampa Bay Times has identified nearly 200 "stand your ground'' cases and their outcomes. The Times identified cases through media reports, court records and dozens of interviews with prosecutors and defense attorneys across the state.

For nearly five years, the Broward County School District has been paying a former head custodian more than $100,000 a year to teach school janitors the finer points of cleaning.
Reynolds Hedland III, 52, has no college degree or state teaching certificate, yet earns more than 99 percent of Broward County's teachers. His lessons include how to mop and scrub bathrooms, strip and wax floors, and "maintain the cleanliness, orderliness, appearance and safe condition of schools."
He's scheduled to teach only 58 days this year ...
http://bit.ly/1gVdEuV



USING A

DATA LENS



LET'S TALK ABOUT

cops





BAD COPS




More than 100 cops involved in serious misconduct cases either remain on the job or continued to work for years before retiring. They include Nassau Officer Anthony DiLeonardo, who was found in an internal affairs investigation to have shot and beat an unarmed cabdriver without justification while off-duty in 2011 after a night of drinking.
Newsday / For Their Eyes Only



Serious misconduct stays hidden behind state Civil Rights Law 50-a, which makes any record used to judge an officer’s performance confidential. As a result, Long Island’s taxpayers are left to trust elected and police officials to provide proper oversight of some of the nation’s best-paid law enforcement officers.


in other words...


a data story on

a lack of data




That trust is unwarranted, a Newsday investigation has found.


In Albany, state laws proposed to address misconduct or increase oversight have gone nowhere.
One bill would have called on state troopers to investigate DiLeonardo’s shooting of the cabdriver the night it happened. Another would have given the state attorney general power to investigate police misconduct.
Both failed, as have more 50 attempts to increase oversight of police since 2009, according to a Newsday review of proposed state laws.



None of these issues, or any related to officer misconduct, were discussed in the county legislatures’ public safety committees, which can hold hearings and propose legislation as part of their role providing oversight of law enforcement.



0

IS A GREAT NUMBER



Nassau's meeting lasted only seven minutes, which is not unusual. Since 2007, 80 percent of the committee's meetings lasted less than half an hour. Half ended in less than 10 minutes.


The remaining 61 either did not answer or declined to comment...



new theory:

cops speed





A three-month Sun Sentinel investigation found almost 800 cops from a dozen agencies driving 90 to 130 mph on our highways. Many weren't even on duty — they were commuting to and from work in their take-home patrol cars.



The evidence came from police SunPass toll records. The Sun Sentinel obtained a year's worth, hit the highways with a GPS device and figured out how fast the cops were driving based on the distance and time it took to go from one toll plaza to the next.



NEW THEORY:

COPS lie



YOU NOTICE...


IN SUFFOLK,

THE COPS always get their man...


...to confess




HUH!


WHERE FROM HERE?



A year-long Newsday study has found that 94 percent of the murder defendants in Suffolk between 1975 and 1985 allegedly made incriminating statements. None of the other six suburban counties studied by Newsday has a rate close to Suffolk's. Their rates range from 54 percent in Montgomery County, Maryland, to 74 percent in DuPage County, Ill.

NEWSDAY, 1986
By THOMAS MAIER and REX SMITH 



sidenote

you think YOU

can't use computers?


1986





WORKING

THE INTERSECTIONS



let's talk about

joining





JOINING:

HARD




JOINING:

awesome




let's talk about

getting




RECORDS

REQUESTS





if they have data electronically,

you can get it
that way


case study



"We don't have it

that way"



[RE: Day care inspections]


Q: how do you collect it?



A: INSPECTORS WRITE REPORTS ON COMPUTER TABLETS


Q: ... UHH ...


(WE GOT THE DATA)



in other words...

always ask for everything


you can use language like...


As this information is stored in an electronic database, I request it be provided electronically, in a spreadsheet or other delimited text-file.

I LIKE:

I request these records be provided in an electronic format that can be imported into standard database software. Examples of such formats include an Excel .xls or .xlsx file, an Access .mdb or .accdb file, a text-based delimited file such as .csv or tab-delimited .txt, a .dbf file or an SQL dump readable by standard open-source database software. (A PDF file would not comply with this request because PDF files are not readable by database software.) If this information is stored in a relational database, I request it be provided in its original relational format, not "flattened" or de-normalized. 


Translation:

1) GIVE ME YOUR NERDS

2) I can take anything



... but no pdfs



no pdfs






HOW DO THEY KEEP IT?



understand the process




the same things that make

a good reporter

make you good at

data journalism



tools


spreadsheets


  • Sorting
  • Charting
  • Counting/summing/grouping
    (pivot tables)
  • Math!


EXCEL, GOOGLE SPREADSHEETS


databases

  • Joining
    (combining multiple
    data sources together)
  • Analyzing more complicated
    data (key word: "relational")


    MICROSOFT ACCESS

    SQL [SQLITE, MYSQL, POSTGRESQL]


    Questions?




    @adamplayford
    aplayford@tampabay.com

    @Nat_Lash
    nlash@tampabay.com

    2015-finding-facts

    By Adam Playford

    2015-finding-facts

    University of Florida: JOU 3010 with Davis/LaForgia. Oct. 14, 2015

    • 1,293