Crime Mapping

Making crime mapping that is accessible to the everyday citizen has only become possible in the previous few years. Without available low cost technologies like Google maps and high speed Internet, SpotCrime could not exist. Crime mapping and making it accessible relies on the integration of these new technologies that a few years ago were separate domains. Also, equally important is making sure that all the information on the website is up to date. This is where we rely on police and sheriff departments to provide us with information.

For the most part, the police and sheriff departments have been extraordinarily helpful and accommodating. However, as will be whenever dealing with a large group, there will be some that refuse to share public data on crime.

This is hesitance is somewhat understandable. Even though crime data is public data and I, too, admit that I would be skeptical if some company out of the blue requested that I send to them data on a daily basis. Furthermore, since the data they share is sometimes raw and it could turn out that upon investigation what was reported as a crime, might turn out to be something else, then people could be misled.

However, unlike the other crime mapping companies, SpotCrime does not charge Police departments for using our databases, nor the customer and we also do not ask for exclusive rights for the information. We believe that Police departments should be transparent to everyone, including us.

While mapping raw data is not a perfect model, it is better than none. Furthermore, by mapping lots of data, trends can be seen and it is from these trends that the public can make informed decisions. This help achieves some of SpotCrime’s principal goals of providing accessible (key word since the information is out there however it is not very accessible) information to the public so they can make knowledgeable decisions and help participate in making their community safe.

N. Generous
Crime Pattern Investigator