Standards

• Every fact traces to a source. Numbers, dates and names appear as they do in the source, which is named and linked.
• The record, not a rewrite. Government notices are copied in the agency's words and labeled as such. The Ledger does not quote people, speculate or predict outcomes.
• Labels. Proposed, expected and as-of figures say so. Census figures are estimates and carry their margins of error.
• What is left out. Automated pages never carry arrests, crimes, deaths, accidents, allegations against a named person, or the merits of a lawsuit. Neighborhood board pages print members' home addresses and phone numbers; the Ledger never republishes them.
• Names. In all four counties and in state records, applicants, owners and agents appear as the agency's record names them. Residents who speak at meetings are not named; the Ledger's written briefs describe private individuals rather than naming them; police reports never carry a name; and contact names, telephone numbers and email addresses are not carried.
• Place names. Hawaiian place names carry the ʻokina and kahakō. Where a government data layer omits them, the Ledger prints the official gazetteer's spelling and shows the layer's own beside it; every name is checked and the result, agreements and disagreements alike, is published at place names.
• Access. The Ledger does not crawl systems that refuse automated access. It links, subscribes to the agency's email list, or asks.
• Corrections. Errors are corrected or retracted the same day, and the page says what changed. A retracted item keeps its address. Report one.
• For residents. The Ledger is written for the people who live here, not for visitors.

Police reports

The Ledger publishes incidents reported to police as the department's own open data records them: the type, the date and time, and the block (“600 block of 22nd Ave”), never a house number and never a name. They are reports, not findings that a crime occurred, and not arrests, and every page says so. Sex-crime reports are counted but never listed by block, so that no one can be identified. The Ledger does not write about individual incidents, publish mugshots or arrest logs, or name suspects or victims. Counts by area use the department's data and Census population figures; the method and its limits are printed with every table.