SpotCrime Crime Types: The 'Other' Icon explained

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Every police agency has a different way of releasing crime information. In an effort to standardize and simplify plotting points on a crime map, we have been using a unique crime categorization system since we were founded in 2007.

Any crime we plot on SpotCrime ends up in 1 of 9 categories:
  1. Theft - The act in which property belonging to another is taken without that person's consent.
  2. Burglary - The criminal offense of breaking and entering a building illegally for the purpose of committing a crime in that building.
  3. Robbery - Using force or intimidation to take property away from another person in the presence of that person.
  4. Assault - A physical attempt or threat to use violence with the intent to do harm to another.
  5. Arson - The crime of intentionally setting fire to a building or property of another or the burning of one's own property to collect insurance.
  6. Shooting - The act of firing a weapon in order to hit, wound, or kill someone or something.
  7. Vandalism - The intentional destruction of or damage to the property of another.
  8. Arrest - The seizure of an alleged or suspected offender to answer for a crime.
  9. Other - all other incidents.
We are pretty happy with all of the icons - except for the ‘Other’ icon. Why? It’s generic and does not indicate what happened. A click through to crime details page is required to learn more. Sometimes, police agencies only deliver the crime type as ‘other’ and do not provide any more details.

However, we keep the ‘Other’ icon around because the types of incidents that fall under ‘other’ are important, especially to community watch groups and neighborhood watch efforts.

The main types of crime incidents that end up in the ‘other’ category include:
  • Other (this is what is fed to us from the police department)
  • Trespassing
  • Disturbance
  • Miscellaneous
  • Suspicious person/vehicle
  • Suspicious circumstances/event

What do you think about the SpotCrime ‘Other’ icon? Let us know! And let your police department know you'd like to see as much information as possible in the crime information they share. Stay aware, stay safe!


                                                                  

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