SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

Unfortunately, we’ve run into a few issues with the recently unveiled open crime data feed in Durham, NC . Because of this, we’ve created a checklist to help agencies create an awesome open crime data feed.  Differences in data Most Popular datasets in Durham There are major differences between what Durham has chosen to display on its vendor’s site and what is displayed on the open data portal . We are not sure the reasoning behind delegating the money, resources, and time to create separate feeds or why the city chooses to give preferential access to information to a vendor rather than the public. Especially when it's the most popular data set on the open data portal. 1. Different feeds - If you compare the spreadsheet the vendor gets and the open data portal the public is required to use, you’ll see that the spreadsheet looks like a clear layman's form of the information while the public data set looks incredibly technical. 2. Different locations - The vendor ...

A ‘release to one, release to all’ federal initiative pilot program will be rolled out in the next 6 months by a handful of federal agencies. Under the initiative any member of the public will presumably have access to the result of almost any FOIA request to the participating agencies. A few journalists have expressed concern over the idea , some in fear investigative stories will be harder to write, others concerned that the public will now have access to a every single FOIA they file. Some journalists suggested a small head start for the original FOIA requester would be fair. This line of thinking doesn’t resonate well with the premise of open data. Especially open crime data. However, this thinking is similar to what is happening with crime data and crime mapping vendors. Crime mapping vendors across the country are regularly granted access to a more up-to-date crime data feed than the public. In Durham, NC the vendor gets a more up-to-date feed than the Du...