Methodology & Standards

Local Insights follows a consistent methodology framework across all products. Our commitment to transparency and reproducibility is fundamental to our mission.

Data Sources

We rely exclusively on publicly available datasets, including:

• Government portals — official data releases from city, county, state, and federal agencies
• Regulatory databases — compliance and enforcement records from regulatory bodies
• Official reports — audits, budget documents, and annual financial reports
• FOIA responses — records obtained through public records requests
• Bulk open-data releases — structured datasets from open data initiatives

We do not use proprietary data, scraped personal information, or sources that cannot be verified by third parties.

Processing Standards

All datasets undergo rigorous processing before analysis:

• Cleaning and normalization — standardizing formats, fixing encoding issues, handling missing values
• Duplicate and outlier review — identifying and handling anomalous records
• Field standardization — ensuring consistent naming, units, and categorization
• Time-series alignment — synchronizing data across different reporting periods
• Geographic normalization — standardizing location data for accurate mapping

Analytical Principles

Our analysis follows core principles designed to maximize trust and minimize misleading conclusions:

• Conservative assumptions — when in doubt, we choose the interpretation least likely to overstate findings
• Transparent weighting — when indices combine multiple factors, weights are documented and justified
• Reproducibility — our methods can be replicated by others with access to the same data
• Public explainability — we explain our work in terms non-experts can understand
• Avoidance of speculative inference — we report what the data shows, not what we think it might mean

Limitations Disclosure

Every product includes documentation of known limitations. We publish:

• Known data gaps — what data we couldn't obtain or isn't available
• Excluded records — records removed from analysis and why
• Reporting delays — lag between events and data availability
• Methodological trade-offs — choices we made and alternatives we considered

Versioning

Each product is versioned. When we update methodology, fix errors, or incorporate new data, we document the changes in our public changelog. Previous versions remain accessible for research continuity.

Independence

Local Insights does not accept funding tied to editorial or analytical outcomes. Our analysis is driven by data and methodology, not by funder preferences or political considerations.

Questions About Our Methods

If you have questions about our methodology, want to request underlying data, or identify potential errors, please contact us at charles@localinsights.ai. We welcome scrutiny and correction.