The Public Defender's Office has successfully utilized data to advocate for increased funding and resources. Over the past seven years as the office has shifted towards data-driven and evidence-based practices, the Public Defender's Office has increased its benefited positions by 100% and its overall budget by over 100%, which amounts to a nearly fifteen-million-dollar increase. Throughout our workshop, we will provide examples of how the office achieved these accomplishments through the expansion of data capacity. Specifically, we will demo the offices recently launched Power BI data dashboard and discuss how we are utilizing the dashboard to report on office metrics and build data transparency across public safety agencies. This presentation focuses specific on Defender voices and how services can be enhanced in Indigent Defense. Additionally, with the focus on Holistic Defense, these data metrics from our advocates helps provide the great client outcomes we've been able to achieve through anecdotes as we look to expand data capacity. Data is dramatically improving how public defenders and public safety groups function and make critical decisions. The impact of not having accurate data when making decisions leads to time wasted on ineffective solutions. Such decisions can result in long-lasting consequences, which subsequently affect all criminal justice stakeholders. The first step in making better budget decisions is understanding the true picture of our communities and jurisdictions by collecting data. When data is collected from our frontline staff, there is a cleaner and clearer picture of the criminal justice process. Just like pixels in a picture, the crispness and clarity of an image increase based on the number of pixel dots that are present. Once you have data, analyzing that data enables a detailed view of the big picture. Relevant metrics can be designed, designated, and measured. The Public Defender's Office has expanded data capacity within its content management system, Defender, to create reports and data presentations. Currently, the office has transitioned to Power BI as a data visualization and presentation tool for reports.

• Participants will be able to identify and describe at least three ways data-driven toolsa??such as Microsoft Power BIa??can be used to advocate for increased funding and resources in public defense.
• Participants will be able to outline the key steps to building internal data capacity in a public defender office, including data collection from frontline staff, analysis, and visualization for decision-making