ESPN’s FiveThirtyEight data journalism website is receiving criticism for continuing to publish a controversial crime analyst without revealing his law enforcement compensation.

New Orleans based “crime analyst” Jeff Asher has used his position at 538 to push so-called “Ferguson Effect” — a claim that increased scrutiny of shootings by police have increased the crime rate.

“We do have to stick with the facts,” President Barack Obama told the International Association of Chiefs of Police in 2015. “What we can’t do is cherry-pick data or use anecdotal evidence to drive policy or to feed political agendas.”

On Friday, FiveThirtyEight cited two pieces by Asher as “some of our best work” of 2017.

A public records request by Shadowproof revealed that Asher is paid by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, a fact not disclosed on 538.

Jeff Asher’s bio at FiveThirtyEight failures to disclose his payments from law enforcement

“Asher’s failure to disclose his ties to law enforcement matters. His claimed independence lends credibility and an air of neutrality to his ideas, which benefit law enforcement agencies like the one that employs him,” Shadowproof explained. “In the post-Ferguson era, Asher became a talking head regarding the so-called “Ferguson effect,” a theory he helped give credence to as a contributor to FiveThirtyEight. Asher argues that we need more proactive policing—as supplied by the drug war—to curb shootings.”

Rory Fleming, the author of the Shadowproof story, blasted the continued failure to disclose Asher’s payments from law enforcement:

1. The problem w/ @Crimealytics keeping his work for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's office secret is not that doing working there inherently invalidates his work. Its that whether or not he likes it, he turned himself into a great LE marketing campaign. https://t.co/yLiO0hwmeu

— Rory Fleming (@RoryFleming8A) December 29, 2017

2. @DLind & @germanrlopez: imagine if Heather Mac Donald worked for a police department. Would it not lend a new meaning to her claimed "War on Police," that LE racism does not meaningfully exist, and that police shootings are virtually always justified?

— Rory Fleming (@RoryFleming8A) December 29, 2017

3. @Crimealytics' deception is akin to telling a room of people, some of whom have a peanut allergy, that he baked them cookies that do not have peanuts in them. The cookies might be good. But if someone w/ a peanut allergy ate one, they would spit it back up and feel violated.

— Rory Fleming (@RoryFleming8A) December 29, 2017

4. If @Crimealytics was a local figure, whatever. I don't live in #NOLA, right? But he's national, & affects nat'l conversations. He's written in @nytimes. He writes for @FiveThirtyEight. Important journos like @DLind & @germanrlopez take him seriously.

— Rory Fleming (@RoryFleming8A) December 29, 2017

5. But @Crimealytics' nationalization of his presence is literally the smartest possible PR move the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's office has EVER DONE. Why? Recent former JP Sheriff Newell Normand is akin to a David Duke, minus the nat'l presence. https://t.co/OF7Zx4Jonx

— Rory Fleming (@RoryFleming8A) December 29, 2017

6. One can say, oh, but @Crimealytics just wants to be a famous writer, & man needs to make a living. Sure. We can't determine his intent.

But, in criminal law, we pretend we can determine people's intent to do bad acts. all. the time. So why not here?

— Rory Fleming (@RoryFleming8A) December 29, 2017

7. Hence, I think @FiveThirtyEight, and @NateSilver538 personally, have a moral and journalistic ethics imperative to fix Jeff Asher's bio to reflect that he is a consultant for the JP Sheriff's office. Let the public judge! Some people don't trust cops. Some have good reason.

— Rory Fleming (@RoryFleming8A) December 29, 2017

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