SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

We’ve got crime coast to coast covered in America (and across the pond, too!). Yes, Canada is in the same America as Boston - the continent of North America that is! We started mapping Nanaimo, a city just west of Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada on Vancouver Island. Open data has picked up in the US, and it’s taking charge in Canada as well. The city, along with other Canadian cities, has crime information on their website. The police are using the crime map they’ve created to open a dialog with residents next week . Head back east into the States to Boston and check Boston open crime data on SpotCrime . Boston recently saw a hike in homicides this January, but as James Allan Fox points out in an article published Boston.com, comparing crime month to month instead of an overall or yearly comparison might paint the wrong picture. He’s dubbed this approach a ‘Chicken Little’ approach when a sudden increase in crime is assumed to signal a trend, when it doesn’t. Fox’s po...

We're still hard at work mapping crime in Charlotte, NC . Although our crime data feed was turned off, and then restored at a delayed rate back in August, we are striving to keep our maps up to date for our users in Charlotte by mapping more recent crimes from local media outlets. For example, check out the crime list of recent robberies of fast food joints in Charlotte in the screen shot below. These robberies were recently covered by Charlotte news outlet WCNC . To view the entire crime list, head here . WCNC covered the story because police have reported that there have been four times as many robberies in Charlotte this year than last. The police are urging residents who frequent fast food places to be 'extra vigilant'. Our access to an open crime data feed was shut off when the Charlotte entered a contract with a proprietary vendor. This vendor now receives preferential access to crime data before the public and press. The police department could be ...

Moving soon? Renting or planning to buy? SpotCrime can help! Crime is a big issue that comes to mind when you find yourself in a move. Nobody wants to put themselves or their family in a potentially harmful area or situation. SpotCrime is the most visited crime mapping site - for good reason. We offer many ways to users to view crime in their area. Here are just a few suggestions to help in your home search. SpotCrime and MyLocalCrime Once you’ve found the area you’re interested in moving to, head to SpotCrime or MyLocalCrime (or SpotCrime.info if you're on your mobile) for a quick view of crime in the area. It would be a good idea to check out crime around any shopping centers you would frequent and around any schools your children would attend, too. Keep in mind that icons like shootings, assaults, robberies, or burglaries are pretty serious crimes to consider when buying or renting a house. Seeing too much crime? Take into consideration the population of the city. Typically...

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...

We’ve rolled out with a brand new iPhone app! It’s free and you can find it in the iTunes store here . The new app features a sleeker design and bigger map for you to view crime incidents in your neighborhood. And, we’ve added a crime tip feature where you can anonymously leave crime tips. Check it out and let us know what you think! Have an Android? We’ve got you covered - check out our Android app in the Google Play store here . If you don’t see crime data on the map, ask your local police department to be transparent with their crime data and SpotCrime will map it - for free. Stay aware and stay safe!

Here at SpotCrime , we think we’ve seen and read it all in terms of ridiculous crime stories. But, just when you think you’ve seen the most ridiculous story, we stumble across a story 200 times more ridiculous. We try to share all kinds of stories with you on our Facebook pages - SpotCrime and MyLocalCrime - and always welcome your feedback and comments. Starting a discussion about crime is a good step in the right direction for safer communities. Here is a list we’ve compiled of the most ridiculous stories we saw over 2013. Stories that make you want to do the Homer Simpson ‘Doh!’ forehead slap. Enjoy! The DUI Couple A husband and wife from Pennsylvania were charged with separate DUI's. The husband got picked up for a DUI, then his wife showed up to the police station to pick him up - under the influence.  View the entire story here. Smart Phone = Smart Victim = Dumb Criminal Anyone who attempts to steal a smart phone and leaves the smart phone on is and idio...

SpotCrime has been trying to collect crime data from Jersey City , population 247k, since we first started mapping crime nationwide. We found Jersey City calls for service on the Jersey City open data portal last week and immediately loaded the information to SpotCrime. Check it out here. When we checked today for more data, we found the open data link no longer displays the feed. Perhaps Jersey City saw the positive feedback from the NYPD Crime map and decided to post crime data. We're hoping decision's like NYPD's to release crime data (even though we weren't completely satisfied with their map) help encourage other cities to release crime data. Or maybe it was a move by the new mayor, police chief, and pubic safety director. In a lot of cities, the Mayor sometimes has a role in decisions made by the Chief of Police, including wether or not they stay around. Former Chief Tom Comey retired shortly after Former Mayor Jerrimiah Healy lost the mayoral race ...

Santa Maria is located in north of Los Angeles just outside of Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County . The population is over 100k make it the largest city in the county, ahead of Santa Barbara . Known for it's barbecued meat, in 2013 Sunset Magazine crowned Santa Maria 'The West's Best BBQ Town' and the city is also located within Santa Barbara County's wine country. We first reached out to Santa Maria with the help of a user who was interested in seeing Santa Maria crime on SpotCrime and in their SpotCrime email alerts . We worked with the SMPD to generate a file from their system that we upload weekly. Interested in seeing your city on SpotCrime ? Contact us and let us know. Make sure to also reach out to your local police agency and let them know about SpotCrime. If they send us crime information, we will map it and send out email alerts for free! Stay aware, stay safe.

Born after events leading up to 9/11, N-DeX is the FBI’s National Data Exchange. It was created to help share information across criminal justice agencies in the US. There are hundreds of records management systems utilized in the US and until the evolution of N-DeX, there was no easy way to share information between jurisdictions unless records systems were already connected. N-DeX creates an easier way to link and analyze cross jurisdictional information. This way, police agencies can root out threats before attacks occur as well as accelerating the investigation process. N-DeX is a cloud based system meaning that police agencies can access the system from any secure computer and there is no actual paperwork that needs to be sorted through and sent to retrieve information. Each agency participating will get a secure log in and user name to the database. And it’s free! Here is a video explaining more about how N-DeX works. However, not all agencies are using the N-DeX syste...

The Open Data 500 is a list of 500 businesses compiled by The Governance Lab at New York University and is funding by the Knight Foundation . It’s the first comprehensive study of US companies that use open government data as a business resource to innovate. The list is subject to change as the GovLab learns more about each company and how they utilize open data. So some companies may be removed or added once all information is reviewed. SpotCrime is thrilled to be selected and featured as one of the companies.  Open data is free, public data that is available to anyone. SpotCrime utilizes open crime data at a bottom-up approach to compile the largest database of crime information nationwide. We've developed (just to name a few things) crime maps, emailed crime alerts and weekly crime alerts with tailored maps included, SMS alerts, as well as Android and iPhone apps. We are also one of thirteen Maryland companies featured.  The Open Data 500 isn’t just focused on cr...

New York City is the largest city in the US, with a population more than LA and Chicago (the next two most populated US cities) combined. NYC is the cultural hub of the US, historically for Ellis Island and currently for the UN Headquarters,  is home of the largest Asian population in the Western Hemisphere, and the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, just to name a few . In addition to being culturally diverse, it holds the world’s financial center with the NYSE and Wall Street. Tourism is huge in NYC. There are 50.9 million visitors to the city annually. With tourist spots like Times Square commonly referred to as The Crossroads of the World, Broadway as one of the busiest intersections for pedestrians, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and Central Park as one of the most visited parks in the US, it’s no wonder the city draws 40.3 million domestic visitors and 10.6 international visitors throughout the year. Some think the crime rate in NYC is r...

Welcome to the party NYC.  You are last city of your size in the US to openly release your crime data. The new map announced by the NYPD today can be seen here: http://maps.nyc.gov/crime/ Unlike most large cities in the US, it looks like the NYPD has elected not to reveal the raw crime data, but has decided to represent the data in a very clean, and absurdly difficult to navigate map. For some, not clearly, explained reason, crime dates are not provided. You are able to get a map of crimes in a particular month. But the exact date and time are hidden. Crime is mapped to the intersection on approximate block level. This implementation is consistent with most police agencies. The NYPD gets high marks for not using a vendor to regulate access to the data and prevent the public or the press from publishing or sharing the information. Some cities in the US have taken down their public unrestricted feeds and replaced them with vendors that limit access and curtail tabulation...