SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

Kentucky crime stats undercounted homicides, enhancing the effectiveness of law enforcement mental health, Utah County's domestic violence shelter short on space, homicide rate declines, CA red flag law, Berkeley considering license plate readers, OH Marsy's law limits public right to know, Dallas restores open data feed after ransomware attack, choosing a correctional officer position, and more... POLICE CONDUCT D.C. Offering Free Software Upgrades For Hyundai Owners At RFK Stadium This Week  (DCist.com) Report: Kentucky Crime Statistics Undercounted 2022 Homicides in the State's Most Populous County  (US News) Chicago Spent $126.5M on Police Overtime in 6 Months, an Almost 50% Jump Over Last Year: Records  (WTTW) Mental Health Providers and Peers Help Enhance the Effectiveness of Law Enforcement Mental Health Interventions  (Springer Link) see also:  Miami-Dade police chief offered resignation before suicide attempt on Florida highway, mayor says  (NBC Ne...

FBI crime stats reporting problem, hate crime reporting and legislation, cost of police misconduct, gun policies that really work, technology that keeps tripping up criminals, scraping court records protected by first amendment, police open crime data websites, juvenile diversion programs working, and more... POLICE CONDUCT The Monterey Park shooting exposes a major problem with crime data  (Axios) FBI Recognizes Sharp Increase In Crime Statistics Reporting  (KSFR) Justice Department report says police aren't fully reporting hate crimes to the federal government: "An incomplete picture"  (CBS News) The hidden billion- dollar cost of repeated police misconduct  (Washington Post) Disoriented KCK police officer in viral video deserves help — and public needs clarity | Opinion  (Kansas City Star) Tampa city council candidate Chase Harrison had 10 sustained violations as a police officer  (Creative Loafing Tampa) CRIME RATE Shot on the Job: Philly’s Public Worke...

Date and time is important when displaying crime data publicly for obvious reasons - the public needs to know when a crime occurred to better inform themselves. Additionally, date and time is important for any type of crime analysis over time. There are dozens of different ways to display a date and time. Every police agency addresses this differently in their crime data feeds. For example, some agencies include date and time in the same data fields, others break them apart into separate fields. Some include time, some don’t. Some write out the month, others use numbers. Some make note of the time zone, others use Unix time. Representing time is sometimes a minor headache, but not a necessarily difficult task. The SpotCrime Open Crime data Standard (SOCS) specifically addresses the date/time issue in open crime data by specifying that date and time to be split into two different data fields. The ISO 8601 YYYY-MM-DD standard is to be used for date and the UTC and 24 hour to be used for...

One of the biggest drivers behind the current police reform demands in the US is police data . There are a myriad of police datasets available within a police department that paint a picture of the inner workings and behavior of its officers with the public. There are many different datasets circulating within a police agency. One of the least ‘sensitive’ data points (the lowest hanging fruit) is the data SpotCrime asks for from police agencies nationwide - Records Management System (RMS) data and Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD/911) data. This data has been around and released to the media and public for centuries . It includes what is known as a ‘crime blotter’ - a list of what and where crime occurs throughout the day within a police jurisdiction and what where and when police respond to the public’s calls for service. At SpotCrime we believe in and encourage police departments to embrace open crime data. ‘Open’ meaning the data is available in machine readable format (ex. API...

UPDATE: We are now getting crime data from Irving, TX! SpotCrime is required to FOIA this information each time we want updates. The Irving PD is giving this information for free (via an automatically updated feed) to a private vendor that restricts how the public and press can use the information, but they do not require the vendor to send a FOIA request each time they'd like to update the data on their website. Ultimately, we would like to see this data published to an open data portal. We are not sure when or if this will be accomplished. We'd like to note that we've paid for programming for the city to pull this data and to set up automatic updates, similar to how the department is automatically updating their third party private vendor, however, Chief Spivey and the city have elected not to set up automatic updates. Instead, they are making a city employee manually pull and send the data each time it is requested. We believe this to be an intentional waste of time a...

For the last 10 years, SpotCrime has been attempting to access public crime data from South Bend Indiana with no luck. More often than not South Bend has made excuses as to why they are unable to share data. All the while South Bend police department  has been willingly providing data to a paid third party vendor. Allowing a preferential private company better access to public information is not in the interest of transparency . Doing this locks the data in a siloed and controlled environment that can’t be inspected, therefore, reducing accountability. If the press and the public are restricted from counting and sharing the data then how is putting it on a map useful? Back in 2017 SpotCrime was successfully able to get an excel file that included a list of incidents that occurred throughout the day in South Bend. Check out and download the raw data here. When we went to request data again in 2017, we were told their system moved from UCR to NIBRS and could no ...

Crime in Hackensack, NJ . SpotCrime is now mapping crime in Hackensack, NJ . Our maps are updated at least once a week. So far, we've mapped 32 assaults, 2 burglaries, 15 thefts, 3 vandalism, and 9 arrests over the past month.  Hackensack is located in Bergen County, NJ and the population is approximately 43k. It is considered a suburb of New York City and the NYC skyline can be seen from a number of places in Hackensack. A few famous residents include F. Scott Fitzgerald,  as well as a number of MLB, NFL, NBA, and olympic athletes. Make sure to sign up for your local Hackensack daily and weekly crime alerts at SpotCrime . Safety is in knowing.

SpotCrime is now mapping crime in Omaha, NE ! We made contact with the Omaha police department just under a year ago to ask them to revisit making crime data open and available to everyone. We shared the importance of open crime data and the SpotCrime Open Crime Standard (SOCS) . After a long wait and some programming, Omaha is now publishing a crime data feed! We are now mapping crime in Omaha and sending out email alerts to residents free of charge. We are also now able to move Omaha's crime data transparency ranking to a 2 on our list! Omaha is the largest city in Nebraska and sits right next to Council Bluffs, IA.The population is just over 400,000 making it top 50 most populated cities in the US. Notable residents of Omaha include Warren Buffet, Marlon Brando, Gerald Ford, and Malcom X. Check out the Omaha crime map at SpotCrime . Sign up for your local crime alert to stay informed of what happens in your neighborhood.

Hundreds of agencies are making their crime data openly available . We wanted to make sure we highlighted the great qualities of an open crime data feed and continue to push agencies to make their crime data feeds as good and complete as possible.  We’ve found that sharing data openly is a good indicator that a police agency has control over their data, they are not afraid of accountability, they can manage confidential and non-confidential elements, and they are a good player with state and national law enforcement. Remember, ‘open’ means the data is available in machine readable format for anyone to collect, use, and share without restrictions. Good Qualities RMS and CAD data - both tell different stories and are both important. Lat/long coordinates - helps with geocoding accuracy. Machine readable - PDF is NOT machine readable. Follows a standard - ex: SOCS   Up-to-date frequency - hourly or daily  Accountable - Contact information for ques...

The open crime data landscape is changing for the better . More and more cities are beginning to publish their crime data openly . We are seeing a shift away from data silos and move toward open data feeds and portals across the country. With advantages of transparency far outranking disadvantages (if any), hundreds of agencies are making their data openly accessible. At this point, it doesn’t make much sense why any police agency still isn’t on board with open data. The SpotCrime Transparency Ranking has been updated to reflect the changes. If you have any questions about any of the rankings, or if you’d like to see a city ranked that’s not on the list, please let us know !  Boston, MA: 0 to 2 They were a 0 in our last update because they upgraded their RMS system, but in the process of upgrading, their public access point to open crime data was kicked offline. When public access to data gets turned off because of an upgrade, we refer to it as ‘ upgrading ou...

Arizona signs Blue Lives Matter bill and tightes rules on asset seizures by law enforcement, Florida apologizes to men wrongly convicted of rape, Birmingham moves toward police transparency, new roadside ‘Textalyzer’, and more… POLICE CONDUCT Arizona Gov. signs 'Blue Lives Matter' bill that toughens penalty for assaulting off-duty police (AZCentral.com) Arizona Gov. signs bill to tighten rules on asset seizures by law enforcement (AZCentral.com) Claims overwhelm commission investigating former Chicago police Cmdr. Burge torture (Chicago Tribune) Fla. Apologizes to ‘Groveland Four,’ Men Wrongly Convicted of Rape in 1949 (TheRoot.com) Innovative Collaboration Between ODU and Norfolk Police Will Analyze 'Procedural Justice' Protocols (ODU.edu) CRIME RATE Bill Haslam signs repeal of new Nashville, Memphis marijuana laws (Tennessean.com) Md. Governor Hogan signs laws to aid rape prosecution (Baltimore Sun) Complaints mount against Utah judge ...

Sessions DOJ shake up, Trump eases scrutiny of police, making law and data more accessible, Joe's Tent City shuts down, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Sessions orders Justice Department to review all police reform agreements (Washington Post) Police Unions Hail Trump’s Easing of Scrutiny. Local Officials Worry. (NYTimes) Law and the New Order: A Fresh Wave of District Attorneys Is Redefining Justice (Governing) Large Majority Favors Criminal Justice Reform Belief that crime is increasing grows by ten percentage points since 2015 (Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs - LSU) CRIME RATE Governors from 4 states with legal marijuana ask Trump administration to leave them alone (Business Insider) Analysis: Undocumented Immigrants Not Linked With Higher Crime Rates (Governing) Why Solving Old Murders Can Help Prevent New Ones (TheCrimeReport.org) This company’s drugs helped fuel Florida’s opioid crisis. But the government struggled to hold it acco...

Crime in Rockford, IL SpotCrime is mapping crime in Rockford, IL again!  Rockford is the third largest city in  Illinois  with a population of about 150k. The city is located in rural central-north Illinois, just south of the Wisconsin border. According to the recent reports SpotCrime receives from local police agencies, crime overall in Rockford, Illinois is currently down by 20% when compared to the previous month. Property crime such as theft, vandalism, and burglary is down. Fortunately, property crime and overall crime have both decreased this month, with property crime decreasing by 0% when compared to the previous month. Violent crime including shootings, assaults, and robberies is also down. Fortunately, violent crime and overall crime have both decreased this month, with violent crime decreasing by 16% when compared to the previous month. About 5 years ago, Rockford police department's crime mapping vendor notified us that we were no longer...

Need help making crime data openly available in your town? Let us know .

We’ve put together a list of open crime data resources for anyone interested. Our hope is these resources will help answer questions like how, what, why, and how much. Or any other questions that may be thrown your way. Crime Data related resources SpotCrime Open Crime Data Standard (SOCS) http://blog.spotcrime.com/2014/03/the-spotcrime-open-crime-data-standard.html We’re a bit biased with this one, but we’ve received feedback from agencies across the country. Overall feedback has been great and we’ve found if agencies don’t follow SOCS completely, it has been a good starting point for open crime data initiatives. Agencies like Montgomery County (MD) and NORCOM (Seattle area) utilize SOCS. Public Safety Open Data Portal Police Data Initiative http://publicsafetydataportal.org/ The White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing launched in 2014 and kick started the Police Data Initiative - an initiative encouraging police agencies to be open and transparent with c...

Good news: we are seeing more Canadian agencies make an attempt to move toward increased transparency within their police agencies. A few Canadian cities have released their own versions of crime maps.  The bad news is the maps they are creating could be way better.  Three ways Canada can make better crime maps: Open (and machine readable) : To start, each map should come with some sort of open, machine readable data feed. This will allow the data to be easily consumed by anyone. Only a few of the maps do this currently. Date : The data included on the maps could be better. One city doesn’t give a specific date, just a range. Another city only gives the month. Some cities provide data months behind. Location : Some sort of address should be included. We’ve found typically in Canada the icons/addresses are anonymized and sometimes moved blocks away. Anonymizing sensitive isn’t a bad thing and is needed in order to help protect victims. Moving crime incidents blocks a...