SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

Baltimore’s crime plan, tracking hate crimes across the US, officers involved in fatal shootings get jail time, fentanyl and the opioid epidemic, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Officer who fatally shot Walter Scott, Jr sentenced to 20 years in prison (DOJ) See also: OKC police officer charged with second-degree murder after DA finds deadly shooting unjustified (NewsOK.com) Police officer adopts homeless mother’s opioid-addicted newborn (Fox61.com) Some Police Departments Are Adding Staff for the First Time in Years (Governing.com) Crime-Reporting Failures Persist Across All The Pentagon's Armed Services (NPR) CRIME RATE Baltimore Pugh says her preventive “good government” approach to crime reduction is working  (BaltimoreBrew.com) See also:  Governor Hogan announces plan to fight violent crime in Baltimore  (Baltimore Sun) and also:  Bloomberg donates $5 million to Baltimore for police technology Community and the Crime Decline: The Causal E...

Police agencies around the country are giving hefty fines to retail giant Walmart for excessive calls for service to the retail locations. Calls range for anything from, s hoplifting, k idnappings, f ights, m eth labs, and of course Black Friday maddness . There are over 4,000 Walmart stores in the US alone with thousands of visitors a day. Some Walmarts are even open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This presents a huge window of opportunity for crime to happen at a much higher rate than your local supermarket. Add in the cost cutting efforts Walmart is known for in order to keep prices low and you have even more reasons crime is so easy at Walmart . Hiring less employees means sub par loss prevention efforts. And, employees with low wages may not feel like they get paid enough to put themselves in a position to stop a shoplifter. The fines could cause Walmart to institute better LP efforts by hiring more employees, install better cameras and anti-theft devices on produc...

It’s that time of year again. Most students will be back in class by the end of this month. Have you checked out the crime around your school? We took a look at crime around the top public schools in Baltimore City .  BPI/Western Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Western High School  Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Western High School are two different schools that share a campus.  Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, also referred to as BPI, Poly, or The Institute, offers a STEM curriculum. Western High School is the oldest public all-girls high school remaining in the US. Current Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake graduated from Western in 1988. The schools are located off of the Jones Falls Expressway and near multiple parks, the Baltimore City Zoo, and many private high schools including Roland Park, Gilman, Friends, and two Universities - Loyola and Notre Dame of Maryland. Check out the screenshot of recent crime near BPI ...

It’s clear that policing in America is in crisis. Particularly in my hometown Baltimore, where no less than three separate Federal investigations are currently underway into the patterns and practices of an agency that has made international headlines with the death of Freddie Gray while in their custody earlier this month. The problem is communities like Baltimore and throughout the country need effective policing. And when an agency falters like the Baltimore police department, the community and the cops who serve them suffer. At SpotCrime, I’ve always believed one of the best ways to address any problem, including crime, is transparency. That’s why when investigative reporter Stephen Janis and former Baltimore Homicide Detective Kelvin Sewell approached me about publishing a book in part on the problems inside the BPD, I agreed. The book, Why Do We Kill: The Pathology of Murder in Baltimore, examines policing in Baltimore in all its complexity and challenges.  In ...

Over 300 arrests in Baltimore April 1-April 7, 2015 We’ve just uploaded Baltimore arrest data. Between April 1, 2015 and April 7, 2015 (one week) there were more than 300 arrests . Check out the screenshot. The SpotCrime map is set up to only show the most recent 300 incidents, so this is not a picture of all arrests in that time span, just the most recent 300 of them. That’s about 52 arrests a day in a city whose population is about 622,000. There has been a lot of talk about what Baltimore arrest data can tell us . Some are suggesting the arrest rates are a direct result of police tyranny . Some blame politicians cooking the books . Some blame the War on Drugs . What does SpotCrime think? We take the same stance we’ve always had. Open up local data - arrest data, crime data, housing data, jobs data, financial data. Make sure it is up-to-date* and easily accessible for anyone to collect, use, and share without restrictions or repercussions.  Control over data...

We mapped some recent crime data files from Frederick, MD ! Check out the map below Frederick is the county seat of Frederick County located in Western Maryland. It's the second most populated incorporated city in Maryland, behind our hometown - Baltimore, MD . Interestingly, a Frederick crime is always a top 25 most viewed crime on SpotCrime. Since the Frederick PD doesn't post their crime data openly or have an open data portal we're working on collecting up to date crime data from Frederick. Keep checking back for updates or sign up for a Frederick area crime alert. We'll notify you with an email alert with there has been an update. Stay aware, stay safe!

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 crim...

There were 20 shooting incidents in Baltimore City from this past Friday (June 21) to today (June 25). Check out a screenshot of the crime list below. View the entire crime list here. Here are some numbers to put into perspective how crazy this weekend was in Charm City: There were 20 incidents that were located in 7 of the 9 police districts over a span of about 5 days. From the information that can be collected from the crime list, there were 27 victims (some with multiple gun wounds), 14 were men and 6 were women. Thankfully, we don't see any children listed as victims. Some say the more the temperature increase, the more crime that takes place. Let's hope Baltimore cools off for the rest of the summer. Want to know how you can stop this violence? Know someone who has an illegal handgun? The BPD has a program for that, check it out here . You can get involved with your community by starting a community watch. Talk to and get to know your neighbors. Check out SpotCr...

Holy cow look at all of those crimes on the map!! That is what you'd first think looking at a crime map in a city like Baltimore . But, if you really think about it and think past all of the thefts, shootings, assaults, you start to think about how those icons got there. Think about the work and people involved to get a dot on a map. It starts with 911. A concerned resident (like you) sees something suspicious or a crime and calls 911.  Then, the 911 Dispatcher collects as much information as possible about the incident. They then decide where, how, and how many officers to dispatch to a certain location. This dispatching process takes equipment and technology. Phones, database systems, cars, radio, uniforms, badges, guns, and training. Then comes the actual officer. Well trained officers are needed to respond to each and every dot on the SpotCrime map . We have a database of well over 15 million crimes . That's A LOT of work for police officers! Once the off...

Check out the SpotCrime crime listing for the spree of robberies that recently hit south west Baltimore.  The suspects targeted businesses in Lakeland and Landsdowne, MD located in Baltimore City and Baltimore County .  Both the County and City departments worked on the investigation.  A tip from the public led to the arrests! Seeing these robberies on a map makes it apparent they were connected because they happened in close proximity to each other.  This is a good tactic to note when checking out crime maps for your own community watch - pay attention to any reoccurring crimes in close proximity of each other, then keep an eye out.  It's probable that the same crime will happen again, committed by the same person.  Sometimes this is typical with car thefts and burglaries too - the criminal hits multiple times in the same area.  Your community watch group may be able to spot them in action with enough time to ca...

The above map shows the number of reported catalytic converter thefts in Baltimore for 2008. Police say that thieves can sell the converters to metal recyclers for $20-$200. The recyclers then extract the metal and resell it for as much as $6,000 an ounce, as in the case of rhodium. While national theft figures are not recorded for catalytic converter theft, the crime has risen in tandem with sharply rising metal prices. Thieves can remove a catalytic converter quickly, often in less than two minutes, so theft can even occur in broad daylight. The only tools a thief needs are a wrench (for converters that are bolted on) or a reciprocating saw (for converters that are welded in). Some thieves bring a mechanic's creeper. Then all they do is slide under the vehicle, remove the bolts holding the converter, and take it. The most commonly hit vehicles are SUVs and trucks, especially late-model Toyotas, because they sit higher off the ground (making for easier access) and the bolts that c...

The above map shows locations of the 5 banks which have been robbed over the last 6 months by the same suspect. He has robbed the Chevy Chase Bank on Edmonston Avenue twice. Baltimore County police need help in identifying the suspect. To view this and other maps, visit: http://www.spotcrime.com/crimelist/2593821,%202599825,%202599826,%202586893,%202599865,%202599827,%202599827,%202599858,%202599924,%202472211,%202445938,%202412593,%202401192,%202388594,%202430277,%202366220,%202381476,%202357009