Google is donating $11.5 million to racial justice causes

Google will invest $11.5 million to support racial justice, the company announced in a blog post today. The funds are split between 10 different causes, with $5 million going to the Center for Policing Equality. "CPE's National Justice Database is the first in the nation to track national statistics on police behavior, including stops and use of force, and standardizes data collection across many of the country's police departments," Justin Steele, a Google.org principal, writes on The Keyword blog.

He says that there isn't a uniform method of data collection thus far, and as such makes apples-to-apples comparisons between reported statistics from one agency to the next nigh impossible.

"We believe better data can be part of the solution, which is why we're investing in organizations using data and evidence to reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system," Steele explains.

As USA Today notes, this effort is double the amount Google has donated to these types of causes prior. It's also an extension of Google's core belief that through better data, and better ways of understanding it, we can solve a raft of problems.