It’s a big day here at Security Force Monitor. We’re excited to reveal our first official product: WhoWasInCommand.com.
WhoWasInCommand.com shows the composition of security forces, their commanders, and the locations of operations and bases
WhoWasInCommand.com makes it fast and easy to find detailed information about the chain of command, areas of operation, commanders and bases of the police, military and other security forces of a country and discover links to alleged human rights violations.
This platform is a unique resource containing a level of detailed data about security forces that has never existed before. It’s the result of an enormous amount of work – and would not have been possible without extensive advice and help from civil society partners. We hope that you find this new tool useful.
10 reasons to use WhoWasInCommand.com
We’d like to point out some of the things that we think make WhoWasInCommand.com a powerful and effective research tool:
- Unique, high grade research: WhoWasInCommand.com contains thousands of units and commanders from the security forces of Egypt, Mexico and Nigeria going back over 10 years. We are committed to expanding our coverage for those and other countries. Expect more data soon!
- Start with search; find things fast: It’s easy to find what you want, no need to navigate unnecessarily.
- Refine your search with powerful filters: Your search results can be refined using nearly 30 different dimensions about location, time, organizational attributes and relationships, and biographical details of personnel.
- Crystal clear views of the data: We’ve designed simple maps, tables and tree charts to present the data we have in the clearest ways possible.
- Check out where every bit of data comes from: You can take a look and get at the sources used to evidence every single datapoint on WhoWasInCommand.com. Also the methods we have used to create the data are fully documented in our Research Handbook.
- Take your findings home with you: Search results, along with any dossier on WhoWasInCommand.com can be downloaded into a spreadsheet along with all their sources.
- Get help when you need it: WhoWasInCommand.com contains help and tips throughout, explaining how different bits of the site work, and what the data presented means.
- Use it in your language: WhoWasInCommand.com is currently translated into English and Spanish, with several more languages to come.
- Use it on mobiles and tablets! WhoWasInCommand.com is mobile friendly.
- Get your own WhoWasInCommand: The software powering WhoWasInCommand.com is open source, which means you can set up and run your own copy of the platform.
Security Force Monitor has partnered with DataMade to create WhoWasInCommand.com. DataMade has operationalized and refined Security Force Monitor’s data structure, created a powerful open source platform to put the data online, and made a significant contribution to the concept and design of WhoWasInCommand.com.
We hope that WhoWasInCommand.com aids the work of journalists, human rights researchers, advocates, litigators and others working to make security forces accountable to the public they serve.
We’re keen to hear what you think about WhoWasInCommand.com. Email us at technical@securityforcemonitor.org.