Existing Data Sources - Essay Example

The paper "Existing Data Sources" is an excellent example of an essay on information technology. In order to conduct a formal internal review on the policies and procedures put in place to oversee the implementation of community policing, I had to source for any supportive documents. Therefore, these documents will serve as my data sources for my analysis. The sources are grouped into sections according to the location and manner in which you acquire them. Before I close the document I was to review from, I first had to countercheck the reliability of the document. The existing sources of information are grouped into two broad groups; these groups are the primary sources and secondary sources.

The primary sources are the type of information obtained first hand and are normally provided by those who either viewed the events happening or from recorded witness testimonies. Some examples of primary sources include tip-offs, off the record messages, and reporters. While secondary source of information entails documents which were written and published for reference purposes, these information source found in the police station were the likes of policemen/women code of conduct book, police crime log, police records, neighbor survey for knowing the ratings of the neighborhood safety, neighborhood crime statistics and policy manual. Secondary sources are also grouped into internal and external sources.
I decided to go with the secondary source of information because it is more readily available, even though this source has its limitation which may alter the quality of findings I was to get. These limitations included: these sources are sometimes questionable and can easily be manipulated/altered. Therefore, I had to countercheck their reliability with other similar records. Some of the information I got was incomplete and not timely, therefore, making some of the information useless. Read More