SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

Should you use year old economic data to determine the current economic stability or the unemployment rate? Would you wait a year after receiving medical information to make a decision on how to proceed with a potentially life threatening procedure? Do sports teams only look at statistics at the end of the season? No. So, why do we happily wait a year for access and the ability to analyze crime rates with UCR (Unifrom Crime Reporting) and NIBRS (National Incident Based Reporting System) reporting? Although well intentioned, it is our belief that UCR and NIBRS should not be data communities ask for and utilize when trying to figure how to assess crime in their neighborhood.  *Please note we are not arguing for cessation of UCR and NIBRS. If these reports have been around for so long, then they must be useful. Right? UCR and NIBRS Fall Short Timeliness: One of the problems with UCR and NIBRS reporting from the community perspective is timeliness. The reports are ...

Born after events leading up to 9/11, N-DeX is the FBI’s National Data Exchange. It was created to help share information across criminal justice agencies in the US. There are hundreds of records management systems utilized in the US and until the evolution of N-DeX, there was no easy way to share information between jurisdictions unless records systems were already connected. N-DeX creates an easier way to link and analyze cross jurisdictional information. This way, police agencies can root out threats before attacks occur as well as accelerating the investigation process. N-DeX is a cloud based system meaning that police agencies can access the system from any secure computer and there is no actual paperwork that needs to be sorted through and sent to retrieve information. Each agency participating will get a secure log in and user name to the database. And it’s free! Here is a video explaining more about how N-DeX works. However, not all agencies are using the N-DeX syste...