The Australian newspaper paper discussing the latest taser death reported that investigators were able to verify the victim was shocked repeatedly 28 times.... in contrast to the officer's reported statement that he was shocked 3-4 times. This post isn't about the use of Tasers...but it is a nice (if not macabre) example of the ubiquitous nature of data in contemporary society and the (sometimes surprising) way in which it is used and treated.
As we know data... regardless of how "quantitative" is not infallible, despite popular opinion on the matter. The distributor of Taser units in Australia is quoted as saying "the data taken off the weapon is very accurate" - only if it's measuring what it's supposed to surely? For example - did the taser malfunction and produce 4-5 shocks per one pull of the trigger? Would the data record this, does the software measure trigger pulls as well as shocks? Are investigators able to correlate this type of data? Was the officer accurate in their recollections? The ability to determine whether an event is the result of "operator error" or "technology malfunction" is one most visibly observed in the aviation industry but is also evident in other incidents involving engineering and infrastructure assets (Hatfield, Piper-Alpa etc.) As Prof Andy Koronios has repeatedly highlighted, effective management and utilisation of meta-data would allow increasing confidence in the data we are relying in to make decisions and conclusions about previous actions.
What this incident does highlight for me is the need to be better educated about data and to collectively move beyond simple data capture and use. On the whole most people are relatively comfortable with the idea that data is important and "good data" is a desirable thing. However providing people with the capacity to evaluate data, determine its "quality", recognise its limitations and how determine how to best to utilise data is required across all levels of the organisation... especially those not directly involved in the technical aspects of the organisations - the data consumers and data collectors of this world.
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