DFPS protects the privacy of both victims and perpetrators. There is no personal information contained in the statistics we show online, and all data has been summarized to the state, region and county levels. Sometimes, however, the data we publish must be limited to ensure that everyone's privacy is protected - usually in sparsely populated counties where the number of people involved is small.
- Low counts. Data about victims and perpetrators is expressed in a range when the number of people is between one and five. On visual graphs, the values are filtered out and do not appear at all. For textual charts, the specific numbers are replaced by "1-5".
- County level. Practically speaking, this only happens at the county level, where counts of victims or perpetrators in smaller counties can be very low. When this happens, county totals are withheld, as well. This does not happen at the regional and state levels.
- Information about people, not processes. Only victim and perpetrator counts are withheld. Counts of processes such as intakes, investigations, and services are not.
- Only certain charts are affected:
- Topic: Investigations / Subtopic: Victims
- Topic: Investigations / Subtopic: Perpetrators
- Topic: Outcomes / Subtopic: Recidivism
When we withhold data that would jeopardize privacy, a "lock" symbol is shown on the screen.