Changing Government: SpotCrime's Fight for Equal and Fair Access to Crime Data is Changing How Government Operates

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Police transparency and openness is colliding full force with technology and trust.


We continue to run into issues collecting crime data from agencies nationwide, however, our push for open, equal, and fair access to public crime information is making headway.
Policy language
Open data policies are now including language that covers how vendors deal with public data. Check out the language in the draft open data policy for Jersey City:
All data or data sets published pursuant to Section III shall be published in a non-proprietary, searchable, sortable, platform-independent, machine-readable format.  All data or data sets shall include available metadata.   To the greatest extent practicable, the City shall assign unique identifiers to all data and data sets.  The City shall not place any restrictions on third-party reuse of data or data sets.  The City shall not provide to third parties any copies, records or logs of the identities or IP addresses of individuals accessing the data, data sets, or data portal, with the exception of a valid law enforcement purpose.
Vendor contracts
Cities are adding language to contracts with vendors to make sure the agency retains control over any data the vendor collects. A good example where we learned of this happening is Palo Alto where, in addition to publishing crime data via the proprietary crime mapping vendor, they also started publishing crime data to an open data website. When we reached out to learn more about the open data feed, they mentioned they’re working with contract managers to make sure data specific sections are included in new contracts.
Drop in cost to taxpayers
Gone (almost) are the days where one crime mapping vendor gets preferential access to public information. Open data websites have led to multiple vendors mapping crime in one city. Philly, DC, Chicago, San Fran, LA are a few of many. Why is this good? Not only has it caused the price for public crime mapping to drop significantly (two crime mapping vendors now offer public facing crime mapping and email alerts for free), it provides a good way to cross reference sources, gives residents a choice in how to receive information, opens up different lines of community-agency communication, and encourages innovation.

Is there a crime data vendor holding back access? Let us know!

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