After a year of independently covering crime, courts and public safety in eastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois, I've seen what our most pressing issues are in these fields - and one of them is domestic violence.

I believe we should have a public registry for domestic violence offenders, similar to the one we have for sex offenders and child predators. With this fundraiser, I will be able to dedicate my time and resources to creating the first version of what this registry could be.

To start, I have obtained records for more than 3,000 domestic-related arrests in Scott County since 2021 - and I will build a prototype registry using these cases to showcase what can be done in other jurisdictions.

In order to complete this prototype, it will take several weeks or months to comb through each arrest and corresponding court documents. And then to expand further back in time in Scott County, or to obtain data from other counties, it will incur considerable costs for time, records requests, web management and data storage.

In tandem with the registry development, I will also publish new articles covering stories from survivors of domestic violence, as well as discussing the issue with professionals, and faith leaders, in the local region.

Please consider giving a donation to help make our communities safer.

Thank you,

Kyle