SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

We updated the SpotCrime University Transparency Ranking! The last time we ranked access to crime data at universities was in 2017. We specifically look at access to the Jeanne Clery Act crime logs . The Jeanne Clery Act passed in 1990 and in addition to annual reports and timely notices of crimes, it requires a crime log to be kept and be made available and open for public inspection during normal business hours for the most recent 60-day period. Unfortunately, the law was created before the impetus of the internet , however a majority of university police departments across the US publish their crime and fire log directly to their website. In this round of ranking we wanted to know if the transparency level of a city police department influenced the transparency level of the university police department since jurisdictions of a university police department and local police department overlap. We looked at the 10 most populated cities (New York, LA , Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philade...

As our nation grapples with police violence and misconduct, transparency by law enforcement is critical now more than ever before. Failure to share data leads to mistrust, poor community relations and low accountability. In addition to a reduction to funding, new training and changes in law enforcement policies and procedures, production of a standard daily police blotter is another option that would improve transparency, allowing the public to better understand the crime in their community and ways police are responding. Recently, Congress passed the COVID–19 Hate Crimes Act , which requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to establish online hate crime reporting processes, collect data disaggregated by protected characteristics (e.g., race or national origin), and expand education campaigns. A second bill being considered, The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act , requires agencies to create a national registry—the National Police Misconduct Registry—to compile data on complaints an...