Data and Decisions - jhitchen
Good morning neighbors,
Hope this newsletter finds you well and enjoying the drier weather. I was recently asked about data and why it matters in government. Data is incredibly important to the work we do as policymakers and to the staff who support us or work for the residents of our county.
Data is only as good as how it is collected, maintained, and used. Good data is precise, shareable, and can be used to help tell a story, show a trend, provide evidence to support conclusions, and should be based on reliable and valid sources.
To help unpack this, I am going to provide a couple of real-life examples we use in Pierce County that you might want to go and dig around in to learn more. I will start with elections, then move to criminal justice, and end with public health.
Elections Data
We spend a lot of time talking about elections, but the discussion focuses on when they actually happen. However, the Auditor and the elections team use data from each election to identify trends, problems, or concerns.
Pierce County Auditor Linda Farmer has recently used the collected data to establish three main goals for 2026 and to determine whether the office has met them. You can find those goals in their 2026 Strategic Plan, specifically on page 2 of the report.
Ensure secure, transparent, and trustworthy election administration by having the team process and count 98% of the ballots by the Friday after election day. That goal cannot be met if the team doesn’t track it.
Increase voter engagement and turnout through targeted outreach and education. They can only increase them if they are tracking how many they have done and then set a new goal.
Expand access to voting and enhance the county’s capacity to manage elections effectively. In their goal for this space, they identified specific ways to increase capacity through staffing, physical changes, and additional internal changes. They can only show an increase if they keep track.
You can also dig into the data on things like which ballot boxes were used most and how many ballots were rejected. You can review the audit data for the elections. For instance, the special election in February of 2026 provides a wealth of data that helps us tell the story of the election that happened in our county.
Criminal Justice Data
Click to review and interact with the data
The Public Safety Committee and all my colleagues on the Council regularly receive updates on crime trends, the number of people housed in our jail or at Remann Hall (a juvenile justice facility), use-of-force data, crime statistics, fireworks reports, injuries, and so much more.
During the Public Safety Committee this week, we reviewed a tool for tracking overdoses in a region. You might wonder why this would be important. There are several key reasons that a tool like this could be important to me as a policymaker and the community.
From my perspective, this would allow the county to identify where to invest in expanding access to treatment, potentially provide community training on recognizing an overdose, and work with first responders to share resources in the community. Sometimes, we will receive information that some of the drugs currently circulating are tainted, and that data should be shared with the broader community. Having access to real-time data would allow us to respond more quickly, thereby saving lives.
Another area where this can be incredibly helpful is finding areas of focus. It can help us identify where there is a greater need for support, and then we work with our partners to provide support at the location. Our county is huge, and driving around looking for people is not an effective way to provide support.
This is also true of other types of data. When our Sheriff’s Office notices a rise in certain types of crime, such as car thefts, they are better positioned to respond and work with partners. We track much of this data, and it is used by the county and our partners to make decisions. A fantastic resource is our Criminal Justice Data Dashboard.
Lastly, in this space, we have used this data to inform policy and explore ways to improve. We continue to see too many Black, Indigenous, and People of Color entering our justice system. Specifically, they are entering at a rate higher than the county's population growth rate. We must track this type of data so we can work on changing systems. If we don’t, then nothing changes.
Public Health
Last week, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department shared its new Data Dashboards with the Board of Health. I have used the Health Department data in the past to help students understand where STIs (sexually transmitted infections) are found in our community or to examine trends in poor water quality.
These new dashboards are part of an initiative to make the Health Department's work more transparent and easier for the community to engage with. They plan to continue adding new dashboards as the team develops them, but right now, you can see data on air quality, adult depression, drug use, kindergarten readiness, respiratory illness, unemployment, and several other areas.
Each topic provides interactive maps and data layers over time. As a policymaker, I might dig into data on adult depression and ask our county team to see which services we are funding. I might ask the health department about Flu, Covid, and RSV vaccines, given the increases in cases. I might work with our Parks Department to increase tree canopy because I see trends of poor air quality in the county.
If you have some time, I know the Health Department would appreciate the community digging around and then providing feedback. These are new tools, and they are trying to make them usable for the public. Your feedback is very helpful.
Community Connections
Listen and Learn with Your Charter Review Commissioners: Saturday, March 28, from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the DuPont Community Center, 303 Barksdale, in DuPont. Join your District 6 Commissioners to learn about the work and share your thoughts and ideas.
Lakewood Community Cleanup: The weekend of March 28-29, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. both days. Bring excess trash, junk, and recyclables to the Lakewood Transfer Station for the city-wide spring cleanup. Must be a Lakewood resident to participate.
Khmer New Year Celebration: Saturday, April 4, from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the STAR Center at 3873 S. 66th St, Tacoma. This is a family-friendly cultural celebration by the Asian Pacific Cultural Center and many community groups.
Spring Craft Bazaar on Anderson Island: Saturday, April 4, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the American Legion Community Center. You can shop for locally crafted spring-themed items.
Sunnyside Beach Park Community Clean-up: Saturday, April 11, from 8 to 9 a.m. at 2509 Chambers Creek Road in Steilacoom. All are welcome to join the community to help keep this Sound community space clean and beautiful.
America 205 – Voices of Valor: Tuesday, April 14, starting at 6 p.m. at the Steilacoom Town Hall, you can join the community to learn from a local historian about the foundation of the United States.
District 6 Library Events in January: Pierce County Library events and classes at the Anderson Island, DuPont, Lakewood, Parkland/Spanaway, Steilacoom, Tillicum, and Virtual libraries.
I continue to look at a lot of data for Pierce County. I look at statistics, heat maps, graphs, and tables. I look at this data and then do my best to ask questions to make sure I understand what it's showing me.
I also make sure I am using good data. Data produced by a reliable source, from a large enough sample size to be used for comparison, and, if available, how it changes over time. Data can only be as good as how it is produced and used, but our county works incredibly hard to ensure we track it and make it visible and usable to the public.
Collecting and sharing data is one of the many duties I believe we hold as your Pierce County Government, and one that I take very seriously.
Take care,
Jani