ATF Open Data: Improving Public Understanding and Reducing the FOIA Backlog

Even before the White House issued OMB Mandate M-13-13 requiring open and machine-readable government data, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was making information available to the public. Starting in early 2013, ATF, in partnership with Socrata, launched an API to make aggregated trace data on Department of Justice (DOJ) to join the open data movement, leading the way for broader DOJ participation.