SOURCES.md

Minnesota Protest Tracker - Data Sources

Last Updated: January 26, 2026

🎯 Current Status: MANUAL CURATION

The tracker currently uses manually curated data stored in events.json. The system checks for updates every 60 seconds and will automatically display new data when the JSON file is updated.

📊 Data Sources Being Monitored (Manual)

Government & Official Sources

• Minnesota Department of Public Safety - Official incident reports
• St. Paul Police Department - Public safety announcements
• Minneapolis Police Department - Activity logs
• Minnesota State Patrol - Traffic/road closure alerts
• Hennepin County Sheriff - Emergency notifications
• Ramsey County Sheriff - Public safety updates

News & Media Sources

• Star Tribune - Local breaking news
• WCCO (CBS Minnesota) - Live news updates
• KSTP (ABC 5) - Traffic and breaking news
• KARE 11 (NBC) - Local coverage
• MPR News (Minnesota Public Radio) - In-depth reporting
• Bring Me The News - Local news aggregator

Social Media & Community

• Twitter/X - Real-time incident reports
  • @MinneapolisPD
  • @StPaulPD
  • @MnDPS_DPS
  • #MNProtest hashtag monitoring
• Citizen App - Crowd-sourced incident reports
• Waze - Real-time traffic/road closures
• MnDOT 511 - Official road condition reports

Community Organizations

• Communities United Against Police Brutality
• Minnesota Freedom Fund
• ACLU Minnesota - Civil rights monitoring
• Local activist groups - Planned event announcements

🔄 Update Frequency

• Map Auto-Refresh: Every 60 seconds
• Data Review: Continuous manual monitoring
• Intel Feed Updates: Real-time as information becomes available

🚀 Future: Automated Data Integration

To enable true real-time monitoring, the following integrations are planned:

Phase 1: API Integrations

• MnDOT 511 Traffic API
• Police scanner feeds (OpenMHz, Broadcastify)
• Twitter API for hashtag/account monitoring
• Weather alerts (NWS API)

Phase 2: Advanced Sources

• Citizen App API (if available)
• Waze traffic API
• News RSS feed aggregation
• Police radio transcription (Whisper AI)

Phase 3: AI/ML Enhancement

• Natural language processing for social media
• Automatic event classification
• Severity/risk assessment
• Predictive crowd movement analysis

📝 Data Schema

See events.json for the current data structure:

• Event location (lat/lng)
• Event type (protest, road closure, gathering)
• Status badges (ACTIVE CONFLICT, MEMORIAL VIGIL, etc.)
• Timestamps and descriptions
• Intel feed updates

⚠️ Disclaimer

This tracker aggregates publicly available information for situational awareness. Data accuracy depends on source reliability. Always verify critical information through official channels.

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Maintained by: N4JHU
Project: https://github.com/N4JHU/mn-protest-tracker
Live Map: https://n4jhu.github.io/mn-protest-tracker/