50 C.A.R. Ideas For Your Beat

By Carol Napolitano

Beat Reporting and C.A.R. -- C.A.R. Trek Conference, Oct. 6-9, 1994

Nothing is more motivating, more energizing, than listening to journalism's big guns tell magnificent tales of stories that changed lives, toppled governments and transformed nations.

And nothing is more demoralizing than listening to them talk of the months and years, and the thousands of dollars, spent to pursue these glories.

Should you work for papers with 400,000+ circulation, you too may one day tell these tales of fame and fortune. But, most likely, you toil for those newspapers and radio and television stations where the only thing more precious than time is money. And you get so very little of both.

So hearing from those blessed with a year to analyze data or $65,000 to have a professional punch in their numbers tends to make computer-assisted reporting sound like a venture for the wealthy, the leisurely and the elite.

It doesn't have to be that way.

C.A.R. can be for the journalistic masses; not just for special projects or investigative monstrosities and the people who produce them. A fruitful technology training program is one that combines short-term and long-term projects and allows all reporters to partake in the glory.

You can buy a spreadsheet or relational database program for about $150 or less. The most common is Excel for spreadsheets and Access for a relational database, though some folks use FoxPro. And, if you don't have a personal computer available for C.A.R. at work but you have a computer at home, talk to your editor about doing data analysis at home. Many editors may be willing to give you that kind of flexibility, rather than invest in hardware.

And don't forget to THINK ONLINE! Use online access to court records, driving records, real estate records, business portfolios and corporate filings, for example, to enhance your stories every day. Talk to your staff librarian or researcher. They may know more about online resources than you think they do.

There are lots of C.A.R. stories out there that can be done on your beat. And to help you get started, journalists hanging out on the information superhighway responded to my electronic call for inspiration and have offered up these 50 ideas:

1. Ever wonder if the neighborhoods receiving Community Development Block Grants really need the money? To find out, analyze Census income data for the census tracts that include neighborhoods receiving CDBG funds.

2. Is St. Patrick's Day coming? Use U.S. Census data and maps to find the most Irish neighborhood in your area and do a story on someone or something there for your St. Patrick's Day edition.

3. Rover? Fido? Fifi? Morris? Peanut? Pickles? What's the favorite name for dogs and cats in your area? Analyze animal licensing records and find out.

4. Use a spreadsheet to sort and rank salaries for state, county or local workers. Who gets paid the most? Who gets paid the least? Did a ditch digger for public works make more than the mayor because of overtime? Take a look at job descriptions. Does your state or town have an employee doing an unusual job?

5. Use a spreadsheet to sort property value data and do a story about who owns the top 10 or 20 most expensive homes in the area.

6. Analyze data from gun permit applications over a period of time to look for trends. Are more women than ever applying to own guns? Are younger or older people applying more? Compare permit application dates with dates of major crime sprees or highly publicized crimes in your area or in the nation. Do gun permit applications go up then?

7. Create a database documenting every homicide in your town or region. Include vital statistics on the victims and the suspects and data on the weapons used, the times and places of the killings, whether gangs or drugs were involved, etc. Then do a piece on murder trends.

8. If you are in a state where assessed property values theoretically reflect market values, take a look at how the short or long time between property valuations can benefit some and cost others dearly. Compare the prices of properties sold to the assessed value of that property using census tracts or other geographical divisions.

9. Cross-check local privilege licenses (like those required for gun dealerships or day care centers) with state or federal licenses to find those operating without the proper local paperwork and how much it's costing the municipality in lost revenues.

10. Use the U.S. Census income data to map out a story pinpointing the richest and poorest neighborhoods in town and determine in per capita how much each is getting in city services.

11. Look at annual property appraisals to see where values are going up and down in your town or region. Use a spreadsheet for calculating, sorting and ranking.

12. Analyze the campaign finance data for local politicians to see who is influencing these decision-makers and why.

13. Test students' geographic knowledge. With the cooperation of school districts, give students in your area a blank map of the United States and have them name the states. Then input the test results, students' grades, gender, etc. into a database and analyze. What state do kids know best? What state is least known? What are some of the weird answers you got?

14. Use a spreadsheet to compare water rates from various cities and towns. Some have high fixed rates and low volume charges that favor big water users. Others have low fixed rates and large volume charges favoring water conservation.

15. Get state, county and local figures on recycling rates in the communities around you and using a spreadsheet to compare them, sort them and rank them. Also look for indications of what recycling methods work best and how different programs can produce results that make a city look good or look bad.

16. One reporter in Florida obtained a county commissioner's database of contacts to see who the commissioner spoke to at decision-making times. The reporter found the commissioner had destroyed some information in the database and attempted to conceal other information.

17. Dump marriage license data into the computer and do a story on the most popular and least popular days to get married in your area. Talk to some couples who got married on those days and ask them why they chose that date.

18. Use tax records, phone books and other sources to find out where banks have their branches. Are they reluctant to locate in minority areas? Punch your data into Atlas, MapInfo or another computer-based mapping program to produce a map that will make the point.

19. Study Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data to look for geographical redlining or disproportionately high denial rates for minority mortgage applicants.

20. Get disciplinary data from your school districts - how many suspensions, detentions, expulsions, etc. Make sure the data includes the student's age, grade, gender and race, as well as why they were disciplined. Look for inconsistent applications of discipline. Do males get expelled more frequently than females for the same offenses? Are minority students more harshly treated?

21. Take a look at city building inspection records to see which developers or landlords most often run afoul of city codes.

22. Get road planners' maps with traffic-load ratings on them for major roads in your area. Then use a spreadsheet to sort and rank the roads and do a story and map showing the best commute routes in the region.

23. Analyze tax records to find out who isn't paying up. Maybe it's a council member, or the president of the school board, or another prominent figure.

24. Take a look at property tax records to track the decline in property values in less affluent areas of town and whether there is a lot of absentee ownership in those neighborhoods. You can use the same data to create a map of those areas.

25. If your local or county government has a bulletin board or you have online access to its computer files, browse around them. One Florida reporter did that and found several humorous items in the police department files: A file titled "Daytona Beach Police Deployment Map" turned out to be a color map showing the location of all the doughnut shops in the area. Also online were a couple of cartoons including one of the sheriff's department chasing a suspect headed for a cliff with a helicopter following at ground level. The copter pilot is yelling through a bull horn, "Don't run. You'll only die tired."

26. Take a look at the growth of cities in your region or state. Get annual city population estimates from the state and use a spreadsheet to sort and rank them. Look for short-term and long-term trends and explanations for them.

27. Do a story on tax-exempt lands and explain why they are exempt.

28. Track politicians' land purchases to see if there is any indication they may be operating on inside information about development or tax sales.

29. If you cover a waterfront area, take a look at the appraisals of waterfront properties. Since these lands often are owned by the wealthy and influential, they can be conveniently under-appraised.

30. Using campaign finance reports filed by politicians, create your own campaign contributions database for the town or region you cover. Add to it every year and it will become a valuable tool in spotting illegal contributions and identifying the movers and shakers behind the scenes.

31. Using a computer and public records, track out-of-court settlements in lawsuits against your local government. How much are they costing taxpayers? Why was it decided to settle out of court? Were there alternatives that may have been better for taxpayers and the town in the long run?

32. Use a spreadsheet to analyze the local budgets each year and build a comprehensive database of those budgets for long-term analysis. Where are the biggest increases? Where is the money going? If you can get a budget even several hours before the budget hearing, you can type the major numbers into a spreadsheet, analyze them and be prepared to ask some hard-hitting questions at the hearing. Some municipalities may have the budget on a disk already. Ask for a copy.

33. Look at state traffic accident data for bicycle accidents to show when and where fatalities are most frequent, and whether bicycle riders were impaired by alcohol or drugs. Compare the results of accidents when bikers were wearing helmets and when they were not wearing helmets.

34. Track the demographics and geographic locations of people appointed to local boards by the mayor or governing body. Are they diverse? Do they truly represent the town in regard to gender, ethnicity, race and income?

35. If your area has land use exemption, take a look at how it's being applied and whether it's being abused. For instance, the exemption in some towns or states is a tax break meant to encourage farmers not to give up farming and to protect forested areas from development. Look to answer these questions: How much money are towns are losing through the exemption? How many of the exempted properties are not being farmed? Are small parcels of forested land being carved off for development, while the rest of the property is being land-banked? Are exemptions being routinely re-approved, or are the properties being inspected regularly?

36. Using local crime statistics reported annually to the FBI, or the police departments own statistics (if they are comprehensive enough), tell readers where most crime happens in a town and what kind of crime it is. Compare crime rates to populations to get a crime index. Look for long-term trends by saving data over the years.

37. Study state traffic accident data for crashes involving emergency vehicles - police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, etc. Are there trends in speed, companies or towns, geographic location?

38. Use federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission records (available on CD-ROM and based on the 1990 census) to gather numbers of minorities in various professions in your county or state. Put it into a spreadsheet and compare data between professions and minority groups and their proportions to total population.

39. Analyze area incomes using the Census Bureau of Economic Analysis national county-by-county data on per capita income. Put the data in a spreadsheet for analysis and use the Consumer Price Index to correct for inflation. Sort and rank communities and look at long-term trends.

40. Use Census data and a relational database to track ethnic changes in your communities.

41. Look at local police data on where and when auto thefts occurred. Look at what types of cars were stolen? Are there trends?

42. Analyze state traffic accident data for information on older drivers, younger drivers, male and female drivers. What groups tend to have the most accidents and what kind of accidents do they tend to be - fender benders, fatalities, etc?

43. Use local police statistics by zones to chart crime at malls over the holidays. What kind of crime is it and when and where does it happen?

44. Keep track of gun deaths with a homemade database compiled from police reports Look at age groups, gender, whether it was murder, suicide or an accident. Was it gang-related? Did it happen at home, at school or on the street, whether it

45. Using annual state school reports in a database, analyze for differences in teacher's education and salaries/benefits among area school districts.

46. Using annual state school reports in a database and the Department of Education's Common Core Data on every public school in the area, look at segregation trends over time.

47. Use state traffic accident data for your area to review drunk driving accidents on New Year's. Is it the most dangerous time to be on the road despite extra enforcement and publicity campaigns?

48. Take a look at tickets issued by police officers for speeding. Use a database to analyze who gives the tickets, where they are given and at what speed. Then do a story on how fast you have to go to get a ticket, where you most likely will get one and who is most likely to give it to you.

49. Type information from state nursing home inspection reports into a database to analyze what home(s) in your area have the most and worst violations, what they are and what's being done about them. Humanize it with stories of the people in those homes.

50. Are the bridges falling down in your town? Get data on bridges in your area from state or federal transportation officials and look at age and repair records. Talk to people as they drive, walk or bike over a bridge that records show may be dangerous. Do they feel they are in danger?