Kalamazoo Restricts Access to Public Crime Data
Public data belongs in the hands of the public. Not in Kalamazoo currently. Kalamazoo Police Department recently shut down their open, unrestricted crime data feed and moved to to a closed, proprietary third party crime mapping website. Open, unrestricted crime data feed Here is what an open, unrestricted public crime data feed looks like on an independently run crime map. And here is what a closed, proprietary public crime data feed looks like on an independently run crime map. Notice a difference? No, crime didn’t decrease with a new crime map. No, the police department didn’t stop responding to calls. The difference is data is no longer openly available in Kalamazoo for the public and press to collect use, and share. Instead, if you want to see what crime is happening in Kalamazoo, the only way to do so is to head to the new crime mapping website that places restrictions on how the public and press can use the public crime data that appears on the...
