Watchdog

Watchdog Public Research

Read-only accountability reports, evidence pages, and thematic indexes prepared for external review and sharing.

Trust and context

Use the About and Methodology pages to understand what is public here, how to read it, and where the current version stops.

AboutMethodology

Methodology

How to read the Watchdog public research surface

This page explains the public data model in plain language and outlines how to read reports, timelines, compare views, linked events, sources, and tags.

About WatchdogBrowse reports

Data model overview

Public pages are organized around entities, events, sources, and themes.

Plain-language guide

Think of reports as the overview, and events and sources as the supporting record.

Reports summarize accountability context around agencies, offices, and people. Events represent specific public records. Sources support those events. Tags group related events around a theme.

Suggested reading order

Start with a report page when possible, then move into linked events and sources if you need to verify how the public summary is grounded in the currently visible evidence trail.

What the main public views mean

Each public surface emphasizes a different level of interpretation.

Timelines
Timelines show linked events in date order, filtered to the current report scope. They are best read as a chronological slice of the currently visible record set.

A timeline is not a separate hidden archive. It is a scoped view of the public records attached to the current page.

Compare sections
Compare sections group changes across a selected date window. They are designed to highlight added, removed, leadership, and oversight-related changes where the underlying report supports comparison.

Compare output is interpretive and scoped. It should not be read as a complete audit log of every possible change outside the current public report model.

Linked events
Linked events are the public event records associated with a report, source, or tag. They provide the next layer of detail under the broader summary.

When a report or tag links to an event, that event is the next place to inspect date, summary, related entities, and visible source support.

Linked sources
Linked sources are the evidence records tied to an event. Public source pages show metadata and the events that cite or depend on that source.

Source pages explain how the source appears on the public surface. They do not automatically represent every document that may exist outside the visible public record.

Tags
Tags are thematic groupings. They help readers follow a topic, issue area, or recurring pattern across multiple events.

Tags are organizational aids, not verdicts. They indicate thematic linkage within the published public surface.

How to read a public report page

Public reports are summary pages. Each section is there to answer a different kind of question.

Summary sections

Use the summary at the top of a report to understand the scope of the page before interpreting any individual event or source.

A report page is intended to orient the reader. It is not just a raw list of records.

Timelines

Use the timeline to see the order of linked public events within the current report scope.

Timeline filters narrow what is already visible on that public report surface by date or event-type context.

Compare sections

Use compare views to understand grouped changes across a selected date window where the report supports comparison.

These sections highlight differences inside the report model. They are not exhaustive historical ledgers.

Connected records

Use linked offices, agencies, people, events, sources, and tags to move outward from the summary without losing public context.

The public surface is designed to support movement between connected pages, not a single page read in isolation.

How sources and evidence are presented

The public evidence trail is designed to help readers move from a summary to the supporting records.

Event pages

Event pages describe the public accountability record itself: what happened, when it happened, and which public entities or tags are connected to it.

If you need the main narrative unit behind a report, an event page is usually the right place to look.

Source pages

Source pages describe the supporting record and show where that source is linked into visible public events.

Metadata can include citation notes, source rank, and primary or official flags where those fields exist on the public record.

Limitations and caveats

Readers should understand the current boundaries of the public surface.

Watchdog’s public site is a read-only view of records that have already been prepared and published for external readers.

Reports, events, sources, and tags are meant to be read together: reports summarize, events describe specific records, and sources show the visible support behind those records.

Internal workflow controls, unpublished review context, and operator activity are intentionally excluded.

Scope and completeness

A public page shows the records and links currently available on that page. It should not be treated as a complete history of every possible record outside the published view.

Interpret compare carefully

Compare sections summarize change across a selected window. They help readers interpret what shifted inside the report model, but they do not replace a full underlying audit history.

Share views and exports in this version

Share links and JSON or CSV exports on public pages are generated from the currently loaded public data in this version. They preserve the visible page state; they are not separate backend export jobs.