SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

View the map at SpotCrime.com , SpotCrime.info , or the SpotCrime Salt Lake City Map Salt Lake City, UT  is now on  SpotCrime ! We applaud the Salt Lake Police Department for making their Calls for Service log available in an open source format. The webpage gives users the ability to view and sort the information. After 48 hours, the calls will be archived and will still be viewable at the data.slcgov.com website here The new webpage is run internally by the department, not an outside vendor. This is a great step in the right direction for government transparency with the public. The new webpage will easily allow both public and press to view, use, and share the information  without the threat of a lawsuit . Our hope is the release of this data will make more people aware - and hopefully more people will be able to do interesting and innovative things with the data. Check out the YouTube video below Chief Burbank's announcement...

Have you ever heard one of those Emergency Alert System messages while listening to the radio or watching TV? In my local area, they do these kinds of messages whenever there is an Amber Alert or a flash flood warning or any other sudden or severe weather warnings. These tests are set up to make sure the stations can get proper information to viewers in case of an emergency. They are controlled by the Emergency Alert System which sends a message to all TV stations letting them know what to broadcast. Think of all of the viewers for one TV station. Pretty powerful tool, huh? What if one day that tool malfunctioned? Well it did, in 1971. A worker at CONELRAD (now known as the Emergency Alert System)  sent the wrong message to all of the stations. Read more about the debacle here . The incorrect message was sent out, causing stations to stop TV and radio shows in order to wait for a message from the President. There was no emergency, but the stations didn't figure out the messa...

We get this request occasionally for email alerts and SMS (text) alerts. It's a fairly simple process. If you do unsubscribe, we hope it's because there is no more crime in your area ;) 1. To unsubscribe from SMS (text) messaging, log in to your SpotCrime account here . Copy and paste this URL into your browser if the link doesn't work  for you http://spotcrime.com/login.php 2. Click on 'My Profile' in the upper right corner of the screen. The 'My Profile' page should look like this 3. Uncheck the 'Cell Phone Message' box. 4. Click the 'Submit' button at the bottom. Voil à ! You should no longer receive SMS texts from SpotCrime . You can also unsubscribed from email alerts at the profile page as well. Just uncheck the 'Email' box and then click 'Submit' (this is also a great place to update your address and radius) If that doesn't seem to be working, you can always contact us here . Just make sure to provide...

So which Kansas City do we have mapped? Both! Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO are both mapped on SpotCrime! Although the cities share a name, they are in two different states with two different governments and two different police departments. Even business laws like zoning and happy hour beer prices are different! Referred to as KCMO and KCK, when someone mentions Kansas City, they are typically referring to KCMO. This is because KCMO is relatively larger than KCK and holds things like the airport and sports teams. KCMO has a population of over 475k while KCK only has approximately 150k Live on the border of the two cities? Even thought there are two different police departments for the cities that share no real border (except a dotted line on a Google map), you can now find all Kansas City crime on SpotCrime - check out the crime around your address on the front page of SpotCrime Crime around the border of Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO Be su...

We recently rolled out with a crime tip section of SpotCrime - Crimetip.us Submit your tip at Crimetip.us Why? It seems pretty logical to add a crime tip link next to crime  information .  With more people coming to SpotCrime than any other agency, it made sense to offer a crime tip service that was easy, fast, and anonymous.   And, well,  we thought crime tips needed a makeover. Crimetip.us is designed to work on a mobile device, your desktop, or laptop - without an app that you have to download. Just add a location, details about the tip including date, location, and time and any personal information you'd like to provide (or just stay anonymous). Once the 'Submit Tip' button is selected, a very unique URL will is created that is shared only with the proper authorities. There is a 'Submit a Tip' link on every state map page , city map page , and crime detail page of SpotCrime - thats over 20 million pages worth of crimes and maps! Ou...

'Apple Picking' is on the rise across the US, and it unfortunately has nothing to do with a honeycrisp or pink lady. ‘Apple Picking’ refers to stolen Apple products. Check out the SpotCrime crime list we created a couple of months ago by searching the words ‘iphone’ or 'ipad' on SpotCrime. View the full SpotCrime crime list here An ABC article states that the FCC attributes 30-40 percent of robberies in major cities to cell phones. In NYC, Mayor Bloomberg blames the increase in the city’s crime rate on iPhone thefts. Fortunately, for you cheap-non-technological Android users (ha-ha) , you don’t seem to be having this problem. You can continue to check out crime in your area via SpotCrime.info in your mobile browser or the SpotCrime layer on Layar . So, what to do if you find yourself unable to feed your need to tweet a picture of your best duckface in the bathroom or lacking the means to update your newsfeed informing you friend list of 2,300+ that you ju...