SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

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...

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

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...

When talking about crime data, is there a distinction between open, public, and proprietary crime data. Absolutely. What is open data? Open data is data that’s available in a machine readable format without restrictions on the ability to use, consume, or share the information. Philadelphia and Chicago are good examples of cities that have open crime data available for residents, the press, and anyone to collect, use, and redistribute. Philadelphia SpotCrime Map Open crime data is the best option for police agencies. The easier the information is to obtain, the easier it is to get more eyes on the information which, we believe, leads to really cool ways to view the data and, most importantly, leads to safer and more informed neighborhoods. What is public data? Public data is data that’s available to the public to collect or look at, but it’s not easily redistributed (or machine readable) and sometimes not easily obtained. It might require an open record...

We’ve be arguing for open crime data since our launch in 2007. Now that the open data movement has picked momentum, we are hoping to see more and more police agencies and cities around the country embrace the open data model with public crime data. This post has been inspired by many articles we’ve read recently. Check out our Open Data board on Pinterest  for more resources. What is Open Crime Data? Open crime data should include all crime related information that is not subject to privacy laws like victim’s names or juvenile information. It shouldn’t be a requirement by police agencies to fill out a lengthy FOIA to get public information. Instead, it should be released by agencies in a timely manner (like daily) instead of monthly or quarterly or annually like UCR reports. A good solution would be to post the information in a machine readable format on the agency’s website. For example, Philadelphia is has an API, Baltimore uses an open data portal, and Los Angeles has a crim...

Sioux City, IA is located in western Iowa on the Missouri River with a population of about 83k residents. The city is split between two counties - Plymouth and Woodbury - and also borders two states - Nebraska and South Dakota . We started mapping Sioux City after it was brought to our attention that recent shootings spurred an interest in reactivating neighborhood watch groups again. Since SpotCrime is the most visited crime mapping site and we're the only crime mapping site to offer actual maps in our email alerts , we started mapping the city hoping it would help facilitate a connection between the community and police department. Sioux City's level of transparency with public crime data exceeds those of many larger cities in the US. They provide an open data feed that doesn't restrict access or the ability to share the information. When you see cities like Charlotte Las Vegas both with populations 9 and 7 times the size of Sioux City respectively, it shows th...

As coding and developing becomes more and more popular, hacakthons are becoming an innovative way to create solutions to every day problems. A hackathon (a mix of the words 'hack' and 'marathon') is when programmers and software developers gather together to collaboratively code over a very short period of time, typically a quick as a day or as long as a week. The main goal of a hackathon is to create usable software, apps, and sometimes hardware  In 2011, US Congress hosted it's first hackathon on December 7 at the Capitol Visitors Center. The event showed how political leadership agrees on the importance and power of technology when mixed with open data. Most of the time, this results in cool and useful apps and resources for residents. These civic hackathons are becoming more popular, popping up all over the US and happening more and more often.  Cities are beginning  to host their very own hacakthons where local residents use publi...

SpotCrime has started to map crime data in Dayton, Ohio ! Dayton, OH on SpotCrime.com The Dayton Police Department pushes crime information to the public via their own website. SpotCrime uses that information to map Dayton. Why map the crime data on our map too you ask? SpotCrime has over half a million subscribers . That's roughly more than 5 million email alerts we send out on a monthly basis to our subscribers. We figure the more eyes we can get on the crime, the safer the communities will become! So go ahead, check out the Dayton PD website and SpotCrime. Figure out which one you like best. Just remember, it doesn't matter which map and alerts you prefer, just as long as you share the information with your neighbors. Stay aware, stay safe!

I live in Smalltown, USA.  The closest airport is 2 hours away.  In fact, 2 hours is how long it takes me to get to any major city(or mall for that matter).  It’s nice living in a small town - no traffic, quiet, and feels safe.  But when I leave my small town, it’s the opposite.  Whenever I venture out of Smalltown, USA, I make sure to check out the area where I’ll be hanging out - especially the crime in the area.   I’ve found that, with the amount of technology floating around the Internet these days, this isn’t as easy as it may seem. From the airport to Smalltown, USA, it’s about 100 miles one way, about a 2 hour drive, passing through many cities/counties/jurisdictions. Where is the safest place to take a pit stop along the busy, bustling I-5 highway? If I want to learn about crime in all of the areas I pass through, I have to check out 4 different crime maps.   Yes. Four. How am I supposed to get a clear picture of crime if I have to check out fo...

In this post, I’d like to talk about the limitations of public crime maps and quasi-public-proprietary crime maps.   Don’t get me wrong, we at SpotCrime are fans of crime maps .  They are an effective tool to represent crime data and get information to the public.  But, crime maps are just one of many options of delivering useful crime data to the public. Maps in general will always have some type of dimensional limitations.  No matter how you adjust the parameters of time and distance with data on a map, it will still be just an incremental snapshot of the data set.   With crime data, if you take a too small snapshot and an area can appear to have no crime.  Take a too large of a snapshot and amount of crime data could crowd the map, show too much crime, and render the map unreadable.  Heat maps are sometimes employed to show density of data on a map, but these too have their own adjustable variances that can influence what is being projected. ...

SpotCrime just sent over 1 million crime alerts this week. A new record for us. That's over 140,000 alerts a day. We'd like to thank our subscribers and our supporters for helping us reach this number. By maintaining our integrity through our financial independence, SpotCrime strives to be the best at delivering timely information to the public through any and all available channels. We'd like to thank every police department that shares data with us and/or makes the data fully public without restrictions or without proprietary systems. Crime mapping is a useful tool to show crime information, but it pales in comparison to full transparency allowing the public and the press to consume, share, and publish crime data without the threat of a lawsuit. We at SpotCrime are proud of not charging any police department for our service, not billing the public for access and not taking any state or federal funds. And yet, in five short years we've become the most visited...

Crime data is an unlimited public resource when digitized.   SpotCrime.com Through the power of the Internet we all can look at digital data, and share it with one another at no cost.  For example, social media.  We can share whatever we want whenever we want through digital channels like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn for free 'Like' SpotCrime on Facebook here If a police department chooses to turn the unlimited resource of digital public crime data into a finite resource by giving a single entity the right to control and regulate the data, then the public should share in the value created by turning that unlimited resource into a monopolized resource. Just like a utility company is regulated, a company with sole control over public data should also be regulated. A more optimal solution for the public, and arguably greater value to the whole of society, would be to release the data unrestricted to everyone - providing equal and fair acces...

It t ook the tragic event of   Jeanne Clery   rape and murder to initiate the creation of the  Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act  (20 USC § 1092(f)).   Now any college or university receiving federal funds is required to disclose information about crimes on or near their campuses.  So if you attend a University that receives federal aid, you should have access to crime information.  But what about everyone else?  Why shouldn't cities and counties have the same requirements to inform their citizens? Part of the inspiration of this post was a recent story in the   Houston Chronical   about a woman who successfully sued her   apartment complex   because her apartment company failed to notify her about a recent break-in at the apartment next to her.  Shortly after renewing her lease, she was attacked in her apartment and brutally raped for 10 hours in February of 2009.   ...