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Frequently Asked Questions

The OIG Information Portal is a data visualization tool that allows users to analyze City of Chicago data. Currently, the dashboards contain over 100 ways to visualize City data related to the City’s budget, employees, and public safety operations.

The dashboards are updated daily after midnight, except for the following which are updated by the second week of the month:  

  • Chicago Police Department Active Sworn Officer Overview 
  • Chicago Police Department Units and Titles 
  • Chicago Police Department Units Over Time 

The time and date of the last update are listed under the dashboard title. 

OIG established direct access to several City of Chicago reporting databases. The relevant data in those databases is extracted, cleaned, analyzed, and visualized. 

OIG has created a short online tutorial video to assist users in exploring the data dashboards. The glossary of terms will assist users to understand key terms used in the dataset. Other questions should be directed to iginfoportal@igchicago.org. 

Media inquiries should be directed to OIG’s Director of Communications at communications@igchicago.org or (773) 478-8417. 

The timeframe of the data varies. All the dashboards show the beginning date of the data under the title and show the last update in the upper right corner of the dashboard. 

The dashboard starts by displaying the data from the beginning date of the data shown under the title through the last update shown in the upper right corner of the dashboard without any filters. You can then filter the data by selecting any item(s) in which you are interested. If you need more help, look for the “Click to Show User Guide” icon on each dashboard for user details specific to that dashboard.

“Null” means that the department responsible for the data did not enter information in that particular field.

“Unreported” means that race and/or gender were not disclosed.

Data is filtered when an item is selected, and unfiltered when the red “X” next to the filter category is selected.