News from TRAC

Significant Improvements

(30 Aug 2000) TRAC has just made two significant service improvements. The first gives you a whole new category of enforcement data that has never before been available. The second involves a sophisticated new research tool enhancing your ability to organize the criminal enforcement info according to your individual needs.

TRAC has long focused on how federal agencies and the U.S. Attorneys they work with enforce the criminal law. Now, for the first time, TRAC is offering civil enforcement information as well. Referrals. Declinations. Cases filed. Outcomes. District by district and for the nation as a whole from 1992 to 1999. The data of course cover those matters when the government sues someone -- a corporate polluter, a police department that systemically violates the rights of citizens, the medical provider swindling the government, etc. Also covered, however, are the matters when an individual or organization -- a disgruntled taxpayer, a public interest group or someone involved in an FOIA or Privacy Act action -- sues the government for its shortcomings. The civil data now can be pulled up in Going Deeper. (Express and Analyzer functions are in the works.) Select Civil Enforcement from the home page and be sure to see a more detailed discussion about civil data coverage in Help before digging in.

Second, program enhancements allow you to further customize the data slices you order up in Analyzer. A user in the New York metropolitan area, for example, might want to combine the federal enforcement activities in New York South (Manhattan), New York East (Brooklyn) and New Jersey. A subscriber in Arizona might want to better understand how the INS, Customs and FBI were enforcing the laws in her district. In Silicon Valley, a researcher might want to create his own individualized computer crime program category by combining all matters where four specific statutes were the lead charge. Go to Criminal Enforcement-Analyzer, choose "Data" and then click on "more selections" for links to instructions on how to customize your data slice. You also can now sort your data slice listings by any display field.