SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

Re-directing no threat 911 calls, mental health unit works toward de-escalation, homicide rate surge may be over, fixing vacancies to reduce gun violence, police use virtual reality for de-escalation training, report urges transparency with internal affairs department, navigating life after incarceration, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Pilot program designed to redirect no-threat 911 calls from Columbus police showing promise, officials say  (The Columbus Dispatch) see also:  Police Aren’t Needed for 49% of 911 Calls: Seattle Report  (TheCrimeReport.org) COVID-19: Law enforcement deaths. Tracking the coronavirus-related deaths of U.S. police officers and other LE personnel  (PoliceOne) BPD's Mental Heath Unit responds to 100+ calls since its inception, works to de-escalate crisis  (KXXV) Chicago Police Department opts for go-slow approach to redeploy cops  (Chicago Sun Times) U.S. Police Academies Overemphasize “Warrior” Training of New Officers  (Academia...

Police surveillance tech evolves, police overtime increases in some cities, getting evicted for calling 911, minimum wage hike had no effect on crime in Seattle, open government is good government, white supremacist propaganda high in some states, Asian-American hate crimes increase, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Racial gaps continue in St. Louis County police traffic stops, use of force, report says  (St Louis Post Dispatch) St. Louis County police tout success of partnership with city pushed by consulting firm  (St Louis Public Radio) More details needed in Jackson police chief’s crime plan, council members say  (WLBT) Why people are getting evicted for calling 911 One way cities are quietly circumventing due process and fair housing laws to evict renters.  (Vox) Boston police overtime is projected to be $15 million over budget for this fiscal year  (Boston Globe) see also:  San Jose audit: Police overtime skyrockets  (San Jose Spotlight) Home surveilla...

Date and time is important when displaying crime data publicly for obvious reasons - the public needs to know when a crime occurred to better inform themselves. Additionally, date and time is important for any type of crime analysis over time. There are dozens of different ways to display a date and time. Every police agency addresses this differently in their crime data feeds. For example, some agencies include date and time in the same data fields, others break them apart into separate fields. Some include time, some don’t. Some write out the month, others use numbers. Some make note of the time zone, others use Unix time. Representing time is sometimes a minor headache, but not a necessarily difficult task. The SpotCrime Open Crime data Standard (SOCS) specifically addresses the date/time issue in open crime data by specifying that date and time to be split into two different data fields. The ISO 8601 YYYY-MM-DD standard is to be used for date and the UTC and 24 hour to be used for...