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Government data collection and research institute at Syracuse University From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) is a nonprofit and nonpartisan data gathering, data research, and data distribution organization in the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.[1][2]
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| Abbreviation | TRAC |
|---|---|
| Established | 1989 |
| Location |
|
| Coordinates | 43.0403°N 76.1355°W |
Directors |
|
Parent organization | Syracuse University |
Staff | ~10 |
| Website | trac |
TRAC collects big data from the federal agencies and maintains a databases of federal enforcement, staffing and financial data.[3][4][5][6][7][8] TRAC also focuses on using the Freedom of Information Act to request such data.[9] The FOIA Project is an initiative of TRAC that monitors federal agency FOIA decisions and practices.[10][11][12]
Over the years, TRAC has been cited in hundreds of news articles.[13]
TRAC was established in 1989 as a research center and was jointly sponsored by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.[14] Susan Long, a statistics associate professor in Whitman School, and veteran New York Times reporter David Burnham served as the founding directors.[9][15]
Barlett and Steele, who won the Pulitzer Prizes for their story on the Internal Revenue Service in 1975 and 1989, couldn’t get the data from IRS and received the data from Long & Burnham instead. This and other inquiries led Long to consider starting an organization dedicated to data collection and analysis.[15]
The website was launched in 1996.[2]
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TRAC makes data available to the public through a variety of interactive data tools, user-generated reports, and original research reports. TRAC uses a variety of statistical techniques to verify data received from government agencies. Where possible, TRAC compares new data with prior data, other publicly available data, and data from other agencies to ensure consistency and accuracy. TRAC works with academic researchers to facilitate more sophisticated research projects.[2] The data warehouse and the specialized data mining tools designed, created and maintained by TRAC are run on SAS software backend.[14]
From its FOIA requests, TRAC adds more than 3 billion new records to its database annually (>250 million records per month). Furthermore more than 300,000 monthly records on civil and criminal proceedings are also obtained.[16]
The TRAC website consists of various subsections that list data from specific government agencies and special projects. These sections include:
The FOIA Project was created by TRAC to track government agencies' responsiveness to public records requests and to document the growing number of FOIA cases litigated in federal court.[10] The Project maintains a public website with information on federal FOIA cases,[31] agency FOIA processing times, a list of the most active FOIA litigators, and research reports written by TRAC researchers. The Project's research on FOIA litigation has been cited by the New York Times and the Washington Free Beacon.[32]
Kevin Blackwell, a senior research associate at the United States Sentencing Commission criticized TRAC in a 2003 paper in the Federal Sentencing Reporter journal, claiming there were inadequacies and discrepancies in its data.[33]
A 2012 issue of Federal Sentencing Reporter was committed to a debate of TRAC's report and criticisms by federal public defenders.[34]
TRAC has been praised by fellows at the anti-immigration think tank Center for Immigration Studies for the quality of the data it provides on immigration as well as the Federal Courts and federal law enforcement organizations.[35][36][37]
David Burnham and Susan Long are the founding directors of TRAC. Burham is former New York Times reporter who works from Washington D.C. while Susan Long is the associate professor of managerial statistics in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at SU.[38][39][40][41][42] TRAC frequently collaborates with faculties from the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, The Knight Chair in Political Reporting, and others.[43][44]
TRAC employs multiple Resident Faculty Fellows.[16] Annually, many student fellowships are awarded for research purposes.[45] TRAC also provides educational opportunities for Syracuse students in the areas of data analysis, software development, systems administration, research, graphics and instructional design.[2][46]
In addition to critical support from Syracuse University, TRAC has been funded by foundations including Carnegie, Ford, Knight, MacArthur, Rockefeller, New York Times, Haas, Open Society, Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, and the CS Fund.[2][10][24][47] TRAC also charges membership fees from their users to help offset the costs of providing services to academics, reporters, attorneys and others.[1]: 70 [2]
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