Waukesha Police Dispute Scorecard Results

Editor's Note: Patch recently published a story about a new "police scorecard" on police violence, accountability racial bias and other outcomes. However, the findings of the 2021 Police Scorecard — a nationwide data-based project founded by data scientist, policy analyst and activist Samuel Sinyangwe — have come under criticism as lacking accuracy.

WAUKESHA, WI —A recently released national police scorecard gave the Waukesha Police Department a 36 percent rating, but the department is disputing the data used in producing the scorecard. Waukesha's police department was among 16,000 analyzed for the 2021 Police Scorecard, a data-based project founded by data scientist, policy analyst and activist Samuel Sinyangwe.

Dan Baumann of the Waukesha Police Department told Patch that the scorecard suggests the department's use of force is 19 percent but the department's own statistics show that the figure is 0.25 percent. Baumann also noted that the department's rate of homicides solved is 100 percent.

Police also provided Patch a link to their own statistics. Patch is attempting to reach the creators of the Police Scorecard to obtain further information about its analysis.

The Police Scorecard launched in 2019 and previously only tracked police and sheriff’s departments in California. The project released its first nationwide analysis Wednesday.

The scorecard is an “ongoing project,” according to its website, and will be updated as new information becomes available.

The database was compiled using information pulled from research literature as well as input from activists and experts in the field. It also used data from the FBI Uniform Crime Report, the Bureau of Justice Statistics' Annual Survey of Jails, the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of State and Local Government Finances, and the California Department of Justice's OpenJustice database.