About us
The National Police Index (NPI) is a project and data tool showing police employment history data obtained from state police training and certification boards across the U.S.
The NPI is a public data project run by Invisible Institute, a nonprofit public accountability journalism organization based in Chicago; Human Rights Data Analysis Group, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that applies rigorous science to the analysis of human rights violations around the world, and Machine Learning Justice Lab, a start-up that builds open source software designed for human rights research. Innocence & Justice Louisiana was a founding partner. The web tool was developed by 79X Solutions.
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- Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
- Wisconsin Transparency Project
- ACLU of Delaware
- University of Michigan Civil Rights Litigation Initiative
- University of Virginia First Amendment Clinic
- George Washington University Public Justice Advocacy Clinic
- Southern Methodist University First Amendment Clinic
- Proyecto de Acceso a la Información de la Universidad Interamericana
- University of Illinois First Amendment Clinic
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- Andra Cernavskis (2026)
- Kaitlyn Mattox (2026)
- Makayla Bruno-Smith (2025)
- Nardien Sadik (2025)
- Josette Soto (2025)
Data updates for the NPI are maintained by Invisible Institute and partners in three individual states:
California Reporting Project, Dragline/ACLU of West Virginia, and Mirror Indy.
The original data files were initially collected between 2022 and 2024 by a coalition of news and legal organizations. In addition to Invisible Institute, California Reporting Project, Dragline/ACLU of West Virginia, and Mirror Indy, these also included reporters, students, attorneys, and others with Big Local News at Stanford, CBS News, Hearst Newspapers New York, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland, ABC Owned & Operated Stations, American Public Media Research Lab, WPLN, Utah Investigative Journalism Project/Utah Freedom of Information Hotline, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Oregon Public Broadcasting, MuckRock/University of Virginia First Amendment Clinic, Washington City Paper/George Washington University Public Justice Advocacy Clinic, WyoFile, and independent journalist Tony Webster.
There are continuing legal and other efforts to obtain data in several jurisdictions by Invisible Institute and Detroit Metro Times/University of Michigan Civil Rights Litigation Initiative, Delaware Call/ACLU of Delaware, Hearst Newspapers New York, The Badger Project/Wisconsin Transparency Project/University of Illinois First Amendment Clinic, Louisiana Law Enforcement Accountability Database/Innocence & Justice Louisiana, The Pulp (Montana)/Morrison, Sherwood, Wilson, & Deola, PLLP, Honolulu Civil Beat, and Kilómetro0/Proyecto de Acceso a la Información de la Universidad Interamericana.
Efforts were made to obtain data in states that have made it inaccessible by Invisible Institute and Colorado Springs Gazette/Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, AL.com, Arkansas Advocate, The Frontier, SpotlightPA/Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, and Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
Access the underlying data files for the National Police Index at this link.