iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 18/09/2026

Next Friday 9/25! This virtual meeting of Participatory AI Research Network will feature HRDAG's Tarak Shak, w/ info abt Beneath the Surface, a project examining gender-based violence and policing through complaint records. @invisible.institute Register here: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi... 1/3

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 17/09/2026

Next Tuesday! 9/22 6pm HRDAG co-sponsors a discussion at Loyola Law School (Los Angeles). Police Decertification + Beyond: Using Police Misconduct Databases. Tarak Shah will give a live demonstration of the Police Records Access Project database. Register: www.eventbrite.com/e/police-dec...

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 14/09/2026

Statistics can be a force for good, but how? In this profile by @amstatnews.bsky.social HRDAG's director of research Patrick Ball shares how he got into human rights work and what advice he has for students who want to use statistics to make a difference. stattrak.amstat.org/2026/09/01/h...

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 25/08/2026

The book ON COURAGE quotes HRDAG's Patrick Ball. Here are some of his words.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 20/08/2026

“Civil society cannot depend on big tech companies to stand up to state pressure in defense of this vital data,” – Dr Patrick Ball, Director of Research at HRDAG #TechFreedomCoop

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 18/08/2026

"There's a group in California called the Human Rights Data Analysis Group that build the world's largest human rights database..." Cory Doctorow cites HRDAG work in a conversation about artificial intelligence. www.instagram.com/reels/Da8Rvu...

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 10/08/2026

"Obviously, the non-American world has a digital sovereignty problem..." Terrific post from Cory Doctorow about the new Technology Freedom Cooperative #TechFreedomCoop @doctorow.pluralistic.net pluralistic.net/2026/08/04/t...

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 07/07/2026

The Police Records Access Project, a coalition project involving HRDAG and academic, research, journalistic, and nonprofit groups, now has new functionality that lifts up the names of police officers involved in violent events.

White text on grey above a photo of a police officer: Naming Police Officers Who Kill in California. Structural Zero 12: New Functionality in the Police Records Access Project Highlights the Names of Individual Police Officers

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 01/07/2026

Author @doctorow.pluralistic.net describes why he loves HRDAG and our work using AI to analyze and find hidden patterns in records of state violence.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 12/06/2026

Human rights researchers today and future generations need evidence of state violence to be stored safely for decades. That's why HRDAG, Datacivica, and other civil society orgs are building a network of databases we control, instead of turning to big tech.

A guy in front of a server looked down with the overlay text: What if instead of handing terabytes of crucial human rights data to private corporations, civil society built and maintained infrastructure for ourselves?

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 21/05/2026

Today we remember the tens of thousands of lives lost in that civil war.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 20/05/2026

For the first time, researchers have identified by name more than ten thousand people who were killed or disappeared when the Indian Peace Keeping Force was sent to Sri Lanka in the late 1980s. This is not just a number, but a record of lives erased.

red and white candle graphic with the text: International Truth and Justice Project Naming Sri Lanka's Dead and Disappeared.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 20/05/2026

Today, we honor the lives lost in Sri Lanka. This week marks the 17th anniversary of the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka. So many questions remain. We still don’t know to the nearest ten thousand how many people perished. But we will continue to work with our partners to seek truth.

White candle graphic on brick red background with the words : International Truth and Justice Project Naming Sri Lanka's Dead and Disappeared

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 12/05/2026

The National Police Index helps people across the country learn why police officers were removed from their positions, including if it was for ethical violations or violence. national.cpdp.co

White and black text on green: How to use the national police index

White and black text on green: "With the Trump administration signaling plans to expanding law enforcement powers and limiting police accountability measures, having access to officer employment records becomes even more critical for oversight," - Sam Stecklow, a journalist with Invisible Institute and co-lead of the National Police Index

White and black text on green: Where available, the data tool shows the recorded reason for an officer's separation from a position, and allows users to download subsets of the entirety of the underlying data.

Black text on green: States that are available on the database today: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kuntucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington State, West Virginia, Wyoming

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 24/04/2026

In any statistical research, it's vital to ask who may be missing from the data. Which survivors are too difficult to reach, too afraid of repercussions to tell their stories, or too mistrustful of our research to offer their perspectives?

Green and white graphic that says: Understanding Sampling Bias

Green and white graphic that says: Systems of data collection shape knowledge. Every dataset is produced by a set of choices--about technology, language, geography, incentives and risk. When certain voices don't appear in the data, their absence can be misinterpreted.

Green and white graphic with the words: We might think these voices weren't impacted when the true story could be these voices were afraid to speak out. Gaps in the data don't happen randomly; they reflect fear, power, access and trust. When people are missing from a dataset, that absence is itself information.

Green and white graphic with the words: If we ignore these absences, we risk telling incomplete or even misleading stories. We may conclude that violence is rare when reporting is dangerous, or that certain communities were unaffected when, in reality, they were unheard. In this way, sampling bias can quietly reinforce the very inequalities we aim to expose.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 20/04/2026

Coding agents are not mind readers haskellforall.com/2026/03/a-su...

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 14/04/2026

We bump into sampling bias a lot in our work at HRDAG. So we know: Systems of data collection shape knowledge. Every dataset is produced by a set of choices—about technology, language, geography, incentives, and risk.

Green and white graphic with the text: understanding sampling bias

Green and white graphic with the text: Systems of data collection shape knowledge. Every dataset is produced by a set of choices—about technology, language, geography, incentives, and risk. When certain voices don’t appear in the data, their absence can be misinterpreted.

Green and white graphic with the text: We might think these voices weren’t impacted when the truth story could be these voices were afraid to speak out. Gaps in the data don’t happen randomly; they reflect fear, power, access, and trust. When people are missing from a dataset, that absence is itself information.

Green and white graphic with the text: If we ignore those absences, we risk telling incomplete or even misleading stories. We may conclude that violence is rare where reporting is dangerous, or that certain communities were unaffected when, in reality, they were unheard. In this way, sampling bias can quietly reinforce the very inequalities we aim to expose.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 07/04/2026

Every dataset carries the imprint of how it was collected: incentives, geography, language, and risk. Understanding that is the first step toward truth. hrdag.substack.com/p/who-is-mis...

White text on orange background: Systems of data collection shape knowledge. Every dataset is produced by a set of choices -- about technology, language, geography, and risk. When certain voices don't appear in the data, their absence can be misinterpreted. We might think these voices weren't impacted when the true story could be these voices were afraid to speak out.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 03/04/2026

Every dataset carries the imprint of how it was collected: incentives, geography, language, and risk. Understanding that is the first step toward truth. hrdag.org/2026/04/02/w...

White text on orange: systems of data collection shape knowledge. Every dataset is produced by a set of choices—about technology, language, geography, incentives and risk. When certain voices don't appear in the data, their absence can be misinterpreted. We might think these voices weren't impacted when the true story could be these voices were afraid to speak out.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 02/04/2026

When a police officer kills someone, they may leave their role—only to get hired at another police department. The National Police Index helps track wandering officers, thanks to @invisible.institute + @hrdag.org + Machine Learning Justice Lab + Innocence & Justice Louisiana. national.cpdp.co

Black text on red background: The New National Police Index

Black and white text on red: The National Police Index is a project and data tool showing police employment history data obtained from state police training and certification boards across the U.S. Through our newly relaunched website, users can search a police officer by name and by agency to learn more about their employment history.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 08/03/2026

On International Women's Day, we join our partners around the world in decrying the assassination of Iraqi human rights defender Yanar Mohammed. Her death is part of a broader pattern of attacks targeting activists, journalists, and human rights defenders in Iraq. www.gc4hr.org/assassinatio...

Colorful poster that says "Justice for Yanar" and a photo of Yanar Mohammed

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 03/03/2026

Where do police officers go after leaving their roles in the wake of killing someone or sexual misconduct? You can find out with the National Police Index—the newly updated data tool from @invisible.institute + @hrdag.org + Machine Learning Justice Lab + Innocence & Justice Louisiana.

Graphic that has black text on red background: "The new national police index" and the url: national.cpdp.co

Graphic that has black and white text on red background: "The National Police Index is a project and data tool showing police employment history data obtained from state police training and certification boards across the U.S. Through our newly relaunched website, users can search a police officer by name and by agency to learn more about their employment history."

Graphic that has black and white text on red background: "The case of Sean Grayson, the Sangamon County Deputy charged with murdering Sonya Massey, shows just how needed this information is. Grayson made national headlines after he shot and killed Massey in her home in July 2024 after she called police for help."

Graphic that has black and white text on red background: "The Sangamon County Sheriff's Office hired Grayson despite his history of policing at five other police departments in three years, serious misconduct in the military and integrity issues at former jobs. Experts say this combination of issues should have been a glaring warning about Grayson as a candidate."

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 19/02/2026

Congratulations to Ayyub Ibrahim, recipient of the Electronic Access award from the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California! spjnorcal.org/2026/02/14/s...

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 12/02/2026

Understanding the relationship between the data we have and the world we are researching is at the heart of statistics. hrdag.substack.com/p/yes-your-d...

White text on orange: "The crucial bit of magic that makes the entire field of statistics work is understanding what the sample statistics is telling you about the population parameter."

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 30/01/2026

HRDAG hosted a data retreat in our office last week. We're grateful to be part of a community of statisticians and scientists using data to advance human rights.

HRDAG and partners gather around a large conference table with laptops for a data retreat.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 29/01/2026

This work is better with friends. Here are some moments from our recent data retreat with HRDAG scientists and our partners at @datacivica.bsky.social Kilómetro 0, & @invisible.institute

HRDAG statisticians and friends gathered around a table for a data retreat with laptops.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 21/01/2026

Data can be a tool for justice. Help HRDAG in our efforts to bring accountability and knowledge to human rights violations. hrdag.networkforgood.com

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 12/01/2026

Data about human rights violations can be used to prove command responsibility. HRDAG can and has used this type of data to prove that those at the top of government are knowingly responsible for the agents carrying out their commands.

Black text on white background: When a dictator delegates the power to commit violence to police, he needs a way to make sure that his agents do the violence he wants, rather than doing violence that benefits only the agents themselves.

This is called the principal-agent problem.

Black text on which background: Bureaucracies use paperwork to try to reel in the principal-agent problem. The more paperwork created, the tight te control of the commanders further up the chain.

Black text on which background: In many cases, there are massive amounts of data being created in real time that connect criminal activities to the government agents that ordered them, including those at the very top of government.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 10/01/2026

Data created during times of human rights violations can be used to prove command responsibility: that those at the very top are responsible for the actions of the agents carrying out their orders. hrdag.substack.com/p/dictatorsh...

Black text on white background: one might assume that human rights violations are well-hidden and poorly documented. But that's not true at all.

Black text on white background: Bureaucracies use paperwork to try to reel in the principal-agent problem. The more paperwork created, the tighter the control of the commanders further up the chain.

Black text on white background: In many cases, there are massive amount of data being created in real time that connect criminal activities to the government agents that ordered them, including those at the very top of government.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 08/01/2026

We don’t work alone. HRDAG partners with truth commissions, courts, and local advocates to build evidence together. Justice is a collective process and data is one of our shared tools.

Black text on white background: Our work has been used by truth commissions, international criminal tribunals, and non-governmental human rights organizations. We have worked with partners on projects on five continents.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 29/12/2025

As the year ends, we are grateful for collaboration. We know our organization is part of a global community of scientists using their skills for justice.

HRDAG team brain storm: 4 data scientists gathering around a whiteboard at the HRDAG team offices, discussing a mathematical equation.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 19/12/2025

Accompaniment - acting as a witness and support to human rights advocates in conflict zones - is core to HRDAG's history and origin story. Today, those principles still guide our work in data and statistical reasoning. hrdag.substack.com/p/all-of-the...

White text on multicolored background: Accompaniment is a practice taht emerged in response to violence against human rights defenders in conflict zones.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 15/12/2025

"Accompaniment" is form of bearing witness and offering what protection we can to human rights defenders in conflict zones. Today, our work at HRDAG is a form a data accompaniment. hrdag.substack.com/p/all-of-the...

White text on multicolored background: Accompaniment is a practice that emerged in response to violence against human rights defenders in conflict zones.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 12/12/2025

All of the ways we remember are data. hrdag.substack.com/p/all-of-the...

Mural "Black Trans Lives: Rest in Power"

Mural: Jairo Mora defensor de las Tortugas

Banner held at protest: Justice for Kayla Moore

Mural in fron of apartment building: Say My Name

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 12/12/2025

In “All of the Ways We Remember,” we trace how survivors, activists, and data scientists come together to preserve truth, even when official records are incomplete or erased. hrdag.substack.com/p/all-of-the...

White text of multicolored background: The tools and methods that have become central to our work reflect a commitment to empower survivors and the broader movement that centers them.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 11/12/2025

Involving humans in AI science isn't merely a moral obligation; it makes the science better. hrdag.substack.com/p/the-data-a...

White text on multicolored background: Scientific funders should be backing projects that center community involvement, not only out of a moral obligation but because it makes the results more reliable and precise.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 10/12/2025

Those most vulnerable to state violence are already marginalized and undercounted. To avoid perpetuating these harms, we have to find ways to incorporate unofficial data sources. hrdag.substack.com/p/all-of-the...

White text on multicolored background: The tools and methods that have become central to our work reflect a commitment to empower survivors and the broader movement that centers them.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 10/12/2025

December 10 & 11: learn how AI, citizen data, and government statistics are used by human rights groups. Featuring HRDAG statistician Maria Gargiulo. Registration for RightsX Summit here: rightsx.ohchr.org

white text on multicolored background including the words: RightsX Summit | The future of human rights starts here| Solution roundtable | Pushing the limits Strengthening synergies between citizen data, AI & Official Statistics

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 09/12/2025

Join HRDAG's Maria Gargiulo at RightsX Summit to explore how citizens and human rights groups use data to seek justice. Registration here: rightsx.ohchr.org

White text on multicolored card including the words: RightsX Summit: The future of human rights starts here. Solution Roundtable: Pushing the limits | Strengthening synergies between Citizen Data, Ai & Official Statistics.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 04/12/2025

Involving humans in AI science isn't merely a moral obligation; it makes the science better. hrdag.substack.com/p/the-data-a...

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 27/11/2025

Today and every day, we offer gratitude to our donors and funders. Thanks to your support, we use science to defend truth and human rights.

The HRDAG staff participating in a candle light vigil.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 30/10/2025

We'd love it if you subscribed to our newsletter, the absolute best way to find out about the important work HRDAG is doing. hrdag.org/newsletters/

Dr. Patrick Ball describing statistical concepts on a whiteboard to a small gathered audience.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 21/10/2025

Despite these risks, our staff will continue to support civil society in our collective pursuit of justice. Read our full statement: hrdag.org/in-the-face-...

A cartoon image of 5 people standing shoulder to shoulder, with two holding laptops. There is a green stripe across the front and words in white that say "We Stand Against Tyranny"

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 21/10/2025

HRDAG remains a nonpartisan, nonpolitical organization. Our mission is focused on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Today, we denounce violations of human rights occurring in the United States. hrdag.org/in-the-face-...

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 13/10/2025

Digital documents about police misconduct typically arrived in an unstructured blob, making it difficult to extract and classify information. We developed LLMs to bring structure to the unstructured. hrdag.substack.com/p/pulling-ba...

We developed LLMs to bring structure to the unstructured: analyzing the content of the documents, organizing the information, and shedding light on what is buried within them.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 08/10/2025

HRDAG and our coalition sought records about police misconduct from 700+ police departments in California. We used LLMs and cross-database validation to identify when the responses we got were likely incomplete. hrdag.substack.com/p/pulling-ba...

White text on orange: LLMs proved instrumental from the very beginning of this project, first by helping us identify when the documents we received were likely incomplete.

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 06/10/2025

We used LLMs to help shed light on millions of pages of documents about police abuses in California. hrdag.substack.com/p/pulling-ba...

Black text on white background: we developed LLMs to bring structure to the unstructured: analyzing the content of the documents, organizing the information, and shedding light on what is buried within them." hrdag.substack.com

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Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 03/10/2025

Under California's Right to Know Act, police departments are supposed to provide records about police misconduct and use of force. We used LLMs to help identify when the records they sent back were likely incomplete. hrdag.substack.com/p/pulling-ba...

White text on orange background: LLMs proved instrumental from the very beginning of this project, first by helping us identify when the documents we received were likely incomplete.

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