Access to information (ATI) and freedom of information (FOI) requests are an under-used means of producing data in the social sciences, especially across Canada and the United States. We use literature on criteria for quality in qualitative inquiry to enhance ongoing debates and developments in ATI/FOI research, and to extend literature on quality in qualitative inquiry. We do this by building on Tracy’s (2010) article on criteria for quality in qualitative inquiry, which advances meaningful terms of reference for qualitative researchers to use in improving the quality of their work; and illustrating these criteria using examples of ATI/FOI research from our own work and from others’ in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. We argue that, when systematically designed and conducted, ATI/FOI research can prove extraordinary in all eight of Tracy’s criteria.
The Policing the Pandemic Mapping Project was launchedon 4 April, 2020 to track and visualize these massive andextraordinary expansions of police power and the unequalpatterns of enforcement they are likely to produce. In doingso, we hope that we can bring to light patterns of policeintervention, to help understand who is being targeted, whatjustifications are being used by police, and how marginalizedpeople are being impacted. More broadly, we hope theproject will inform a larger conversation about the role ofpolicing in society, to scrutinize public health and policecollaboration, and to focus attention toward the harms ofcriminalization. Having an understanding of these patterns incoming weeks will help inform approaches to actively resistthe logic and practices of policing crisis and disease, ratherthan allow them to become widespread and normalized.Through the acts of identifying, reporting, and visualizingevents related to the policing of COVID-19, the projectoffers a living repository of publicly accessible data that canbe used by activists, academics, journalists, and communitymembers to analyze, discuss, and challenge the policing ofdisease. We encourage all people to use the data availablethrough this project in any way they wish.
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