Cline Center

Human flourishing starts with informed decisions. The Cline Center's mission is to advance this by turning complex data into actionable insights. Learn how our interdisciplinary teams are creating impactful knowledge for a better world.

Coup d'État Project | Cline Center University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Our website has interactive maps you can use to explore the frequency of coup events around the world. You can find them here:

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 At the Cline Center, we maintain one of the largest global registries of coups d’état. In this video, we examine the complex events of the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and explain why our Coup d’État…

Coups d'etat come in many forms, as exemplified by the Romanian Revolution of 1989. Signifying the end of a totalitarian regime, this event is classified in our Coup d'Etat Project as a realized coup that involved a popular revolt. Learn more from this video:

Police use of force is declining, according to University of Illinois study The study looked at national incidents of police using lethal force. The total number of such incidents in 2023 was the lowest in almost a decade.

Cline Center director Scott Althaus discussed the SPOTLITE data release with WBEZ. He says, "The Cline Center Spotlight project aims to rebuild trust between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve." Read here:

Our latest SPOTLITE data reveals a 24% decrease in police-involved lethal force incidents in the U.S. from 2021 to 2023, marking 2023 as having the fewest incidents since 2015. More details can be found about the SPOTLITE Project here: buff.ly/KTLl0nW

Of the civilians we were able to classify, we found 47.1% were White, 35.1% were Black, 16.6% were Hispanic, and 1.6% were Asian/Pacific Islander.

Learn more about our SPOTLITE Project here: buff.ly/KTLl0nW

Our latest release of SPOTLITE data offers for the first time a comprehensive picture of the demographic characteristics of civilians involved in police uses of lethal force on a national scale, including incidents without lethal outcomes.

Big news from the @cline-center.bsky.social: police uses of lethal force in the US dropped 24% from 2021 to 2023, with 2023 having the smallest number of lethal force incidents involving police since 2015.

news.illinois.edu/research-pol...

We’re proud to share the latest update to our SPOTLITE project, which now includes data through 2023. The database documents 28,726 incidents of police use of lethal force from 2014–2023. Learn more: buff.ly/KTLl0nW

The Cline Center is happy to announce the Cline Center’s 2025-2026 David F. Linowes Fellows. Congratulations to Professors Yun Huang and Don Casler @doncasler.bsky.social! You can learn more about their projects and the Linowes Fellowship here: : buff.ly/Sc6usa4

Coup d'État Project | Cline Center University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Since 1945, there have been 374 attempted coups, 262 conspiracies, and 458 successful coups globally, and we're still counting. We have one of the largest global registries in the world, and we continue to monitor these political events. Learn more through interactive maps here:

The Cline Center is redefining research by blending social science, humanities, and data science. From next-gen tools to news analysis at extreme scales, we’re making data work for scholars.

Did you know that the countries with the most coup activity are Bolivia, Sudan, Argentina, Haiti, and Venezuela? This includes successful and attempted coups as well as conspiracies. Explore more from our coup data here: buff.ly/GAeuLwQ

The top 5 states with the most police uses of lethal force according to SPOTLITE registry are California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio. Learn more on SPOTLITE dashboard: buff.ly/ie2VyW6

The Cline Center’s expansive global news index illuminate societal well-being and the forces that shape it. Dive into the data that drives change: buff.ly/3XZYRJD

The Cline Center’s research employs news indexes and unique datasets to fuel social science research focused on societal well-being. Here’s a look at the data resources we curate to support impactful studies and data: buff.ly/PLd8gfd

Coups come in 3 types: successful, attempted, and conspiracy. Want to learn more about global coup d'etats? Explore our updated dataset: buff.ly/tRLyYrn

The Cline Center is pleased to announce the Cline Center’s 2024 Schroeder Summer Fellowships. Congrats to Larissa Migotto Brandolt and Do Young Gong! To read about their interesting projects visit: buff.ly/kej5XQJ

How do police uses of lethal force impact communities? The Cline Center's SPOTLITE registry is designed to shed light on critical issues by providing detailed data on incidents across the United States, supporting evidence-based policy reform.
Learn more: buff.ly/3B9GmwX

Cline Center for Advanced Social Research The Cline Center for Advanced Social Research works to equip and empower social scientists, humanists, and data scientists to address 21st century challenges that threaten human flourishing - climate…

Archer is the Cline Center’s tool for accessing the Global News Index. Now, you can learn more about how to use its tools through our video series, available on Youtube: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

With the Washington Post discontinuing its fatal police shootings database, the Cline Center is committed to expanding SPOTLITE—our database tracking police uses of lethal force. 2014-2021 data can be found: clinecenter.illinois.edu/spotlite
2022 and 2023 will be released soon

Happy Earth Day! Protecting our planet isn't just an environmental issue—it's foundational to all fields of study, including social research. Let's work together to ensure a sustainable future🌎

Archer | Cline Center University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Discover Archer: the Cline Center’s tool for accessing the Global News Index. With a user-friendly interface and advanced API capabilities, Archer empowers users to refine queries, create facets, and visualize results easily. Explore its potential: clinecenter.illinois.edu/project/data...

Thank you @jatucker.bsky.social for guiding UIUC students and faculty in a timely conversation about how to mitigate online harms. We discussed navigating one of the most pressing challenges of our time: how to navigate information -- real or false -- in a digital ecosystem.

True scientific progress requires validity, replication & falsifiability. That’s why we prioritize transparency in methods, measures & quality criteria—ensuring research that stands the test of time.

What We Do | Cline Center University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The Cline Center is committed to nonpartisan research that can be used to promote informed decisions that benefit society as a whole. Learn how our data can create a difference:

Millions of bees have died this year. It's "the worst bee loss in recorded history," one beekeeper says. Bees play a key role in the U.S. food supply, and the mass deaths could jeopardize that.

Bees are dying at unprecedented rates but few Americans are aware of the problem.

A 2021 @cline-center.bsky.social study explains why--there has been little news of pollinator declines since at least the late 1970s.

Read it here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

www.cbsnews.com/news/bee-dea...

Our global news index is home to millions of news stories from accredited sources such as the WSJ and BBC. Access it all via Archer here: clinecenter.illinois.edu/project/data...

My Turn | How federal funding helped UI undermine international terrorism "As someone who once used federal funding to push back against global terrorism, the current rush to slash spending for university research makes me think of something else: the opportunities

Many think federal funding for humanities research is a waste, but @cline-center.bsky.social was funded by the @neh-odh.bsky.social to disrupt terrorism by figuring out how to stop the news attention terrorists want. Here's why fed support for research matters.

www.news-gazette.com/opinion/gues...

SPOTLITE Dashboard | Cline Center University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

SPOTLITE is the most comprehensive registry of police uses of lethal force in the U.S., and it is still evolving. Learn about how we are building up this dataset into a tool for change: