Why Police Agencies Should Follow the Open Data Model
We’ve be arguing for open crime data since our launch in 2007. Now that the open data movement has picked momentum, we are hoping to see more and more police agencies and cities around the country embrace the open data model with public crime data. This post has been inspired by many articles we’ve read recently. Check out our Open Data board on Pinterest for more resources.
What is Open Crime Data?
Open crime data should include all crime related information that is not subject to privacy laws like victim’s names or juvenile information. It shouldn’t be a requirement by police agencies to fill out a lengthy FOIA to get public information. Instead, it should be released by agencies in a timely manner (like daily) instead of monthly or quarterly or annually like UCR reports. A good solution would be to post the information in a machine readable format on the agency’s website. For example, Philadelphia is has an API, Baltimore uses an open data portal, and Los Angeles has a crime data FTP link on their website.
Open crime data should be non-proprietary and accessible to everyone. It shouldn’t be passed through a third party or vendor. Vendors typically place restrictions on crime data, affecting how the public and press can use and share the information. The agency itself should be in charge of the data they post, or, vendors should be held accountable for the public information they’re getting paid to host for police agencies.
SpotCrime is not a vendor and we recently rolled out with free software allowing police agencies to pull a public file from their RMS. It’s called SpotCrime Catapult and the file created is available to anyone allowing the data to originate from the primary source, like a records management system, instead of a third party or vendor.
Open crime data should be available electronically. It’s 2014. Electronic machine readable formats are not only faster, but a lot cheaper than what's involved in printing, mailing, scanning, and faxing. We’ve found a lot of agencies still fax, snail mail, or require you to physically come into the department headquarters to collect information. This is an antiquated and time consuming approach to public data and the standards should be set higher. Check out this response we received from the Auburn, AL police department last year. Information must be picked up in person and are $.25 a page.
Open crime data should not have a license, copyright, or regulation on the data. Placing restrictions on how the information can be used or who it can be used by defeats the purpose of open data.
Why should agencies release this information?
Open Data informs the public faster. Agencies who rely on a single source to deliver crime information to the public are delivering important information at a very slow pace. It’s better to release the information to all outlets, then see how it gets shared. The more outlets there are to view the information, the more informed a community, and the safer it will become.
Open Data is not expensive. By opening up the information making it available to everyone, it would save administrative time (and money) it takes to fill FOIA requests. It also frees up staff time to work on other issues that may not involve the public like investigations. Also, civic apps and hyperlocal news sites don’t cost the agency a dime when it comes to delivering information to residents.
Open Data garners trust and transparency. By allowing residents to look at and review the data for themselves, it raises the departments level of accountability. End of quarter summaries, reports, and statistics become even more valuable to residents.
Open Data allows for innovation. If crime data is held solely by the agency or a single proprietary vendor, limitations on what can be done with the information become a roadblock to innovation. Who knows what helpful app a young programmer will come up with when the data is easily available to them.
Open Data helps the economy. By releasing the information, companies will build new products and services that can cycle into the economy. Look at how many weather apps, shows, sites, etc were created when weather data became public and available to anyone.
What is Open Crime Data?
Open crime data should include all crime related information that is not subject to privacy laws like victim’s names or juvenile information. It shouldn’t be a requirement by police agencies to fill out a lengthy FOIA to get public information. Instead, it should be released by agencies in a timely manner (like daily) instead of monthly or quarterly or annually like UCR reports. A good solution would be to post the information in a machine readable format on the agency’s website. For example, Philadelphia is has an API, Baltimore uses an open data portal, and Los Angeles has a crime data FTP link on their website.
Open crime data should be non-proprietary and accessible to everyone. It shouldn’t be passed through a third party or vendor. Vendors typically place restrictions on crime data, affecting how the public and press can use and share the information. The agency itself should be in charge of the data they post, or, vendors should be held accountable for the public information they’re getting paid to host for police agencies.
SpotCrime is not a vendor and we recently rolled out with free software allowing police agencies to pull a public file from their RMS. It’s called SpotCrime Catapult and the file created is available to anyone allowing the data to originate from the primary source, like a records management system, instead of a third party or vendor.
Open crime data should be available electronically. It’s 2014. Electronic machine readable formats are not only faster, but a lot cheaper than what's involved in printing, mailing, scanning, and faxing. We’ve found a lot of agencies still fax, snail mail, or require you to physically come into the department headquarters to collect information. This is an antiquated and time consuming approach to public data and the standards should be set higher. Check out this response we received from the Auburn, AL police department last year. Information must be picked up in person and are $.25 a page.
Open crime data should not have a license, copyright, or regulation on the data. Placing restrictions on how the information can be used or who it can be used by defeats the purpose of open data.
Why should agencies release this information?
Open Data informs the public faster. Agencies who rely on a single source to deliver crime information to the public are delivering important information at a very slow pace. It’s better to release the information to all outlets, then see how it gets shared. The more outlets there are to view the information, the more informed a community, and the safer it will become.
Open Data is not expensive. By opening up the information making it available to everyone, it would save administrative time (and money) it takes to fill FOIA requests. It also frees up staff time to work on other issues that may not involve the public like investigations. Also, civic apps and hyperlocal news sites don’t cost the agency a dime when it comes to delivering information to residents.
Open Data garners trust and transparency. By allowing residents to look at and review the data for themselves, it raises the departments level of accountability. End of quarter summaries, reports, and statistics become even more valuable to residents.
Open Data allows for innovation. If crime data is held solely by the agency or a single proprietary vendor, limitations on what can be done with the information become a roadblock to innovation. Who knows what helpful app a young programmer will come up with when the data is easily available to them.
Open Data helps the economy. By releasing the information, companies will build new products and services that can cycle into the economy. Look at how many weather apps, shows, sites, etc were created when weather data became public and available to anyone.
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