Different Dimensions of SpotCrime Crime Mapping

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This week we've been working on re-establishing open crime data in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The Toronto PD turned off their easily and freely accessible crime data feed. We've received word that the police thought it provided and inaccurate picture of crime data in the city. However, their current way to inform citizens of crime is pretty dismal.

Currently, the only way to see crime data in Toronto is to create and sign in to a news release account on the police department's website.

You can sign up to receive the news releases via email, which is what we've done and what we'll be mapping in the meantime. Unfortunately, we've found that some of the news releases read more like a Buzzfeed clickbait soap opera than a news story.  Why not include all of the details in an email? Especially when not everyone can make it to a press conference or catch the press conference on TV?

This is bad news because now the police have slowed down and almost completely removed easily accessible crime information from their residents.

Some of the news releases include missing persons. We've been mapping each of these missing persons report on SpotCrime as an 'Other' icon. Check out this Toronto Missing Persons crime list to see all of the missing person reports we've been able to map this week. Mapping missing persons is just another dimension to SpotCrime. We hope that by mapping and posting this information to our site, the people will be found safely and quickly.
Screenshot of the Toronto Missing Persons Crime List

Want to stay up to date with Toronto area crime? Check out SpotCrime and sign up for your free local crime alert.

Stay aware, stay safe!



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