SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

In recent years, the transition from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) has been hailed as a major upgrade in crime data collection. NIBRS offers more granular, detailed reporting compared to UCR’s summary-based approach. But while the benefits sound promising on paper, in practice we’re seeing a troubling side effect: timely, block level incident crime data is slowing down—or disappearing entirely—from public view and access. Is NIBRS to Blame? The NIBRS transition is not the only factor, but it's a significant one. Unlike UCR, which focused on counting major offenses, NIBRS demands more detail and structure. That means departments must invest in costly software upgrades, retrain staff, and restructure internal workflows. These changes introduce delays—and in some cases, departments decide it's easier to stop releasing data altogether rather than deal with the complexity. Adding to the issue is that many of th...

Los Angeles, one of the largest cities in the U.S., has long provided public access to crime data through its open data portal. However, a troubling shift has been unfolding, raising serious concerns about transparency, public safety awareness, and accountability. The LAPD’s transition to a new Records Management System (RMS) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) has resulted in significant gaps in crime data reporting, with updates becoming increasingly sporadic or ceasing altogether. The Problem: Crime Data No Longer Updating Regularly Historically, LAPD updated its crime data feed on a weekly basis but changed to biweekly updates in early 2024 . However, as of early 2025, the department appears to have stopped updating its primary dataset entirely. The most recent available crime data from the “Crime Data from 2020 to Present” dataset stopped at December 30, 2024 , but has since resumed biweekly updates. However, these updates now contain only a few incidents p...

DOJ says Phoenix police have pattern of violating civil rights, Louisville police Chief suspended, police shootings, reporting crime data in 2022 explained, big cities big victories over crime, Baltimore city gun violence drop, police drones, facial recognition tech, license plate readers, NYPD dodge surveillance transparency laws, LAPD removes crime data from public, incarceration and crime, dying in prison, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Florida deputy who fatally shot airman fired for ‘not objectively reasonable’ use of force  (WFLA) Minnesota law enforcement officers are facing increase in attacks by shooters, state data shows  (CBS News) Phoenix police have a pattern of violating civil rights, Justice Dept. report says  (WGLT) Louisville community leaders calling for more transparency after LMPD police chief suspended  (KTVZ) County’s New Approach To “Emergency” Calls Is Working Swimmingly  (Rhino Times) When Police Shootings Don’t Kill: The Data That Gets Left...

Coronavirus continues to effect domestic violence, crime on subways, a call for researchers to embrace open crime data, looking at effectiveness and equity, GA no longer allows private companies to copyright the law, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Policing during a pandemic (Part 1): A new normal  (CCX Media) Life as a prosecutor during coronavirus: People spitting at grocery clerks, telling police they have COVID-19 during arrests  (CPR News) Effectiveness vs equity in policing: Is a tradeoff inevitable?  (Academia.edu) Baltimore police have seized 165 illegal firearms, arrested 19 murder suspects during coronavirus state of emergency  (CBS Baltimore) RPD, other agencies tracking calls for service over groups larger than 10  (WDBJ) Thousands of criminal charges delayed during the pandemic, Maricopa County data shows  (AZCentral) COVID-19: PGPD temporarily suspends beard policy and issues N95 masks to officers  (WJLA) CRIME RATE Not every...

SpotCrime has begun to map crime data from the LAPD again ! The public data feed Spotcrime was using to map LAPD data was interrupted in 2011 when  LAPD moved from an open mapping system to first providing data solely to the LA Times and then contracting with a police vendor to map crime for the public. Recently, the LAPD published a public crime data feed again on their website via a FTP (file transfer protocol). We feel this is great step in the right direction for departments, especially for departments of LAPD's size. A public data feed in spreadsheet format available for anyone to view electronically with no restrictions on sharing shows true transparency with crime data within a department. Make sure to thank the LAPD for their work toward publishing a feed. And if you live in the LA area, be sure to sign up for your local crime alert from SpotCrime . We will send you a crime map tailored to your address and specific radius ...