Data Dictionary
Field definitions and possible values for incident and export data. Use this when documenting methods or building reproducible pipelines.
Incident fields
| Field | Description | Example | Possible values |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | Unique incident identifier. | 123 | Integer |
| date | Date of the incident. | 2024-01-15T00:00:00 | ISO 8601 date |
| city | City where the incident occurred. | Phoenix | Text or null |
| county | County where the incident occurred. | Maricopa | Text or null |
| state | Two-letter U.S. state or district code. | AZ | Two-letter code (e.g. TX, CA, DC) |
| latitude | Approximate latitude of the incident location. | 33.45 | Float or null |
| longitude | Approximate longitude of the incident location. | -112.07 | Float or null |
| agency | Name of the law enforcement agency involved. | Phoenix Police Department | Text |
| agency_type | Type of law enforcement agency. | local | federal, state, local, tribal, private, unknown |
| victim_name | Name of the person involved, when publicly known. | John Doe | Text or null |
| victim_age | Age of the person involved, when known. | 34 | Integer or null |
| victim_gender | Gender of the person involved, when reported. | Male | Text or null |
| victim_race | Race of the person involved, when reported. | Black | Text or null |
| victim_armed | Whether the person was reported as armed. | false | true, false, or null |
| victim_weapon | Description of weapon if armed. | knife | Text or null |
| fatal | Whether the incident was fatal. | true | true or false |
| summary | Brief narrative summary of the incident. | Officer-involved shooting... | Text or null |
| official_claim | Official statement or claim from authorities. | Officers responded to... | Text or null |
| circumstances | Reported circumstances of the incident. | During traffic stop | Text or null |
| status | Current status of the incident record. | open | open, disputed, under_investigation, closed, archived |
| created_at | When the record was first added to the database. | 2024-01-20T12:00:00Z | ISO 8601 datetime |
| updated_at | When the record was last updated. | 2024-01-25T14:30:00Z | ISO 8601 datetime |
| tags | Comma-separated tags (CSV export only). | custody death | Text |
| source_count | Number of sources attached to this incident (CSV export). | 2 | Integer |
Source fields (JSON export)
Each incident in the JSON export may include a sources array with the following fields.
| Field | Description | Example | Possible values |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | Unique source identifier. | 456 | Integer |
| source_type | Type of source material. | media | official, media, video, court, ngo, witness, medical |
| publisher | Publisher or outlet name. | AP News | Text |
| title | Title of the article or document. | Officer-involved shooting in Phoenix | Text |
| url | Original URL of the source. | https://... | URL |
| published_at | Publication date of the source. | 2024-01-16T00:00:00 | ISO 8601 date or null |
| archived_url | Archived copy URL (e.g. Wayback Machine), when available. | https://web.archive.org/... | URL or null |
| quote_excerpt | Relevant excerpt from the source. | Police said... | Text or null |