SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

SpotCrime has been asked to submit testimony on an upcoming Kansas Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) hearing that will be discussing changes to the current FOIA laws, bringing transparency in Kansas into the 21st century. You can read the testimony we submitted below. This is not our first time providing testimony on access to public information. In 2014, we were asked to provide oral and written testimony on the Maryland Open Data Bill (SB644) . The data SpotCrime collects is public information, so if a police agency is not already openly releasing the data publicly to their website or they don't have some sort of public blotter, we are sometimes directed to submit a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the information. This has allowed SpotCrime to provide an invaluable case study on how transparency and public access laws are being applied at the the local level. We've found that after we submit the same request to local jurisdictions, each police agency ha...

SpotCrime was asked to speak at the Maryland Council on Open Data meeting today. Below are the slides and notes we used in our presentation. The Maryland Council on Open Data was formed as a part of the Maryland Open Data Policy legislation passed last year (SB644). You can find more information about SB644 here  and read our testimony on the bill here . Don't forget to check out the Maryland State Open Data website here .