SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

In recent years, the transition from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) has been hailed as a major upgrade in crime data collection. NIBRS offers more granular, detailed reporting compared to UCR’s summary-based approach. But while the benefits sound promising on paper, in practice we’re seeing a troubling side effect: timely, block level incident crime data is slowing down—or disappearing entirely—from public view and access. Is NIBRS to Blame? The NIBRS transition is not the only factor, but it's a significant one. Unlike UCR, which focused on counting major offenses, NIBRS demands more detail and structure. That means departments must invest in costly software upgrades, retrain staff, and restructure internal workflows. These changes introduce delays—and in some cases, departments decide it's easier to stop releasing data altogether rather than deal with the complexity. Adding to the issue is that many of th...

Los Angeles, one of the largest cities in the U.S., has long provided public access to crime data through its open data portal. However, a troubling shift has been unfolding, raising serious concerns about transparency, public safety awareness, and accountability. The LAPD’s transition to a new Records Management System (RMS) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) has resulted in significant gaps in crime data reporting, with updates becoming increasingly sporadic or ceasing altogether. The Problem: Crime Data No Longer Updating Regularly Historically, LAPD updated its crime data feed on a weekly basis but changed to biweekly updates in early 2024 . However, as of early 2025, the department appears to have stopped updating its primary dataset entirely. The most recent available crime data from the “Crime Data from 2020 to Present” dataset stopped at December 30, 2024 , but has since resumed biweekly updates. However, these updates now contain only a few incidents p...

Data driven policing, police chief departure, police transparency, nonviolence work, crime stats, youth-related crime, mask wearing defendants, sanctuary cities and crime, murder rate, police cameras, AI and policing, police chief search, privatizing prison food service, women in prison, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Urbana Police Chief lays out ‘data driven policing’  (WCIA) OIG pens letter to New Orleans Police Department publicizing inaccurate crime stats reporting  (WGNO) CRIME RATE The Untold Impact of Nonviolence Work: How Success Gets Measured in Chicago’s Hardest-Hit Neighborhoods  (WTTW) Youth-related crime continues to be an issue for Cincinnati, CPD report says  (Fox19) US Justice Dept demands data on criminal cases involving mask-wearing defendants  (Reuters) UNM research shows no correlation between sanctuary cities and crime  (UNM News) Jackson State experts weigh in on Jackson murder rate the past 5 years. See the numbers  (Clarion Ledger) ...

Transforming policing, Marsy's Law Supreme Court ruling in Ohio, 911 call center reforms, school crime report, police staffing and crime rates, ICE statistics, AI for police reports, NYPD to disclose surveillance tech contracts, gunshot detection, using tech to fight crime, facial recognition, law enforcement transparency, private prisons, recidivism, and more... POLICE CONDUCT How to Transform Policing and Regain Public Trust  (Governing) Ohio Supreme Court hears arguments on whether cops get crime victim protections  (The Columbus Dispatch) Nonpolice response teams may cut crime, save cash, but data limited  (Civic Media) Jersey City Union President Backs McGreevey for Mayor, Calls for 911 Call Center Reforms  (Jersey City Times) CRIME RATE Annual K-12 school crime report shows overall drop over previous year  (North State Journal) San Francisco’s police staffing is at a historic low. So is its crime rate.  (Mission Local) ICE Enforcement and Removal Oper...

Citizen police oversight, officer mental health, nonpolice response teams, Phoenix DOJ investigation, Laken Riley Act, crimes against police officers, NYC subway violence, crime rates, body cameras, data driven technology, transparency, body camera transparency, open crime data, encrypted police radio channels, prison, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Philadelphia Citizens Police Oversight Commission Releases Report Highlighting Evaluation of Police Termination Arbitration Board  (City of Philadelphia) How Baltimore Convinced Officers to Seek Help for Alcoholism and Depression  (Governing) ‘You wouldn’t call your plumber to fix your teeth’ – Nonpolice response teams may cut crime, save cash, but data limited  (The Badger Project) How President Trump’s recent actions could impact law enforcement (Police1) see also:  Future of Phoenix Police DOJ investigation unclear under Trump Administration  (12News) Police departments are divided on enforcing the Laken Riley Act ...

The SpotCrime Crime Data Transparency Ranking was established in 2013 to assess how openly cities share crime data. We periodically update the ranking to reflect the evolving landscape of open crime data. With the increasing use of AI in policing, ensuring public access to this data is more critical than ever. AI models are only as reliable as the data they are built on. Continuous monitoring using open data helps identify and correct biases in real time, ensuring these models evolve to be more equitable. Scoring System: 0, 1, 2 The scoring system remains unchanged since our 2020 update. Score of 2 : Awarded only if the data is openly and timely published on an open data portal . "Open" means data is available for download in a machine-readable format, accessible to anyone for use and sharing. A dedicated portal and feed improve data discoverability. Open data portals often include documentation and contact information, ensuring transparency and accountability. Open data al...