Roadmap · IROPO

How data moves through IROPO

Official sourcesFBI agency directory, NIBRS series and tables; official registries
CollectScheduled downloads with checksums
NormalizeOne schema, ORIs linked
VerifySchemas, tests, human review
Source of truthdata/processed, versioned in Git
Publishiropo.org, CSV and JSON

Feedback from the public, advocates and agencies flows back into source discovery and corrections. 19,636 agencies and 64,306 agency-year records are in the source of truth today.

Phase 0: Foundation

Legal footing, governance and the rules that protect people from mistaken listings.

In progress

Define the canonical offender and case record schema (Done)
Draft publication, verification and correction policies (Done)
Choose fiscal sponsorship or file for nonprofit status (Planned)
Scope and obtain legal review of privacy and defamation risk (Planned)
Define governance: who can add, correct and remove records, and how appeals work (In progress)

Phase 1: Data aggregation

One reviewable source of truth, assembled from official data for every state.

In progress

Catalog and evaluate FBI NIBRS sources and the agency directory (Done)
Build a U.S. state coverage matrix (Done)
Automate imports for all 51 jurisdictions, replacing the NC, ND and NY spreadsheets (Done)
Cross-check legacy 1977 ORIs against today's FBI directory (Done)
Record provenance, retrieval dates and checksums for every dataset (Done)
Catalog official government animal abuser registries (Done)
Evaluate state and county court record systems as sources (In progress)
Stand up a private intake store and two-person verification workflow (Planned)

Phase 2: Platform and interface

A fast, accessible public site with citations on every figure.

In progress

Choose the framework: a static Astro site on GitHub Pages, built from a Python data pipeline (Done)
Public browse and search for states and agencies (Done)
Accessibility, responsive design and SEO basics (Done)
Open data: CSV downloads and a static JSON API (Done)
Monthly automated data refresh proposed as reviewable pull requests (Done)
Searchable individual registry, after Phase 0 legal review (Planned)

Phase 3: Launch and growth

Partnerships, outreach and a sustainable way to keep the data current.

Planned

Privacy-respecting analytics, contact paths and feedback channels (Planned)
Data-access partnerships with shelters, rescues and researchers (Planned)
Promote across social media and animal-welfare communities (Planned)
Long-term maintenance plan for updates, reviews and corrections (In progress)

Phase 4: Beyond the United States

Expansion limited to the only countries with more people than the US: China and India.

Planned

Limit the scope beyond the US to China and India (Done)
Legal review of each country's animal cruelty, court record and personal data laws (Planned)
Catalog and evaluate official animal cruelty data and court records in China and India (Planned)
Recruit volunteers and partners with legal and language expertise in each country (Planned)
Extend the schemas, pipeline and site to jurisdictions outside the US (Planned)

The business plan describes the funding each phase needs. Each phase begins only when its funding is secured or credibly committed.