Cohort 2023

Innovate Memphis

Improving Safety and Racial Equity through Data Visualization

Memphis, TN

In Memphis, Black residents are 3.8 times more likely than white residents to be arrested for low-level, nonviolent charges, have longer stays in jail on average, and are more likely to be victims of crime. To address these racial disparities and community harm, the Justice and Safety Alliance, a coalition of organizations working to transform how public systems operate in Memphis and in Shelby County more broadly, are developing and advocating for equitable policies and practices rooted in racial justice that increase safety, accountability, and healing.

With Catalyst Grant funding, Innovate Memphis, in partnership with Stand for Children, a lead member of the Justice and Safety Alliance, and United InfoLytics, a data visualization vendor, will use a user-centered approach to integrate data on the front end of the criminal legal system into Data Midsouth, a civic data hub for sharing public data and supporting users across a variety of community indicators. Throughout the grant period, Innovate Memphis will engage advocates and people impacted by the criminal legal system in a series of grassroots user-design sessions. Based on community members’ input and findings from background research, the organizations will set priorities for obtaining, cleaning, and publishing data into Data Midsouth and create public reports to visualize the data. Innovate Memphis will provide Justice and Safety Alliance members examples of how to use the data and training resources so they can help people use the new data to advocate for and develop equitable policies and practices.