Wikipedia is the anonymous source no journalist can quote. There are many reasons for that, but chief among them is the most obvious: You can never be sure who is doing the writing and editing. People work diligently to ensure the accuracy of the online encyclopedia, and that’s admirable—but still, Wikipedia remains the research equivalent of “For entertainment purposes only.”

Tracking edits made to Wikipedia pages has become a pastime for tens of thousands of Twitter users. Want to know if folks at the U.S. Capitol are padding their Wikipedia resumés? You’re not alone: More than 31,000 people follow @congressedits, an automated Twitter feed that publishes anonymous Wikipedia edits made from Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in Congress. Example: In July 2014, someone using a congressional IP address added a line to the entry on Kansas Representative Tim Huelskamp—not exactly a contender for speaker—deeming him a “national conservative leader.” That bit of re-envisioning went straight online.

Earlier this year, journalist Kelly Weill wondered if anyone at the New York City Police Department (NYPD) was making similar alterations. Weill searched an array of public IP address databases and located approximately 15,000 belonging to the NYPD. Weill and a partner created a computer script that allowed her to pinpoint Wikipedia edits made from computers on the NYPD network. Her investigation, which was published on the website Capital New York on March 13, revealed that significant changes to Wikipedia entries on acts of brutality by the NYPD stemmed from these addresses.

The Wikipedia page on the July choking death of Eric Garner by police officers in Staten Island, which led to widespread protests around the city, was among those altered. The word “chokehold,” for example, was edited twice, augmented once with the modifying phrase “chokehold or headlock,” and on the other occasion deleted and replaced with “respiratory distress.”

African Americans have always contended with the erasure of their history, whether in the lessons offered in our schools or in narratives portrayed in the media.

The editor also inserted information pointing out that chokeholds were currently legal under New York law. This was correct, and as recently as January, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that he would oppose any effort to outlaw them. What the edit failed to mention was that Use of Force rules outlined in the NYPD Patrol Guide have banned the asphyxiating restraint technique since 1993.