SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

What is swatting? You've probably seen it in the news recently - famous celebrities in Los Angeles like Chris Brown , Miley Cyrus ,  Justin Bieber , Ashton Kutcher , Simon Cowell , Tom Cruise , and the Kardashians have been targeted. Swatting is when a hacker pretends to be someone by hacking their phone line, cal\lling 911, and reporting a fake emergency to the victim's address - normally a kidnapping/hostages, bombings, shootings, or murders - which requires heavy police presence to respond to the home, sometimes with guns drawn, only to have police show up to find that the call was a hoax. It seems to be an evolution of ' phreakers ' who gained notice in the 1970s when they would hack into phone companies computers and make free long-distance calls. These calls are very dangerous because they are similar to calls departments receive about real shootings  or murders. The police show up ready for a crazy person, possibly armed, only to find innocent victims. B

After a victorious sweep last night by JV and Varsity highschool basketball teams I help coach, the post victory speech was stopped short when my players stated that they were not excited to go to school the next day. There is a school policy that kids have to attend three consecutive periods in order to participate in any after school activities and we had another game scheduled the next day. And the 'tomorrow' they were speaking of also happened to be the Mayan prediction of the end of the world. So I didn't think twice when I laughed at them and told them they better be in every single class. 'A kid threatened to shoot up the school and kill students tomorrow. None of us want to go.' My kids were afraid to go to school, not because of a Mayan prediction, but because of a threat by a peer. They had every reason to be on edge. Fortunately, the kid was found expelled right before our game. I got confirmation from one of the teachers at the school and told th

The National Institute of Justice has recently announced new funding opportunities for research . If you are planning on applying for NIJ funding for research please remember that SpotCrime has free data for research and plans to release more data in 2013. We are committed to release and share public crime data for positive purposes. We made our historical database available earlier this year in hopes that crime patterns apparent in the data would be analyzed and new methods of crime prevention would arise from the findings. Some of the research the NIJ will be funding sounds pretty interesting. One program will provide funding for analysis of existing data the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data. Another program will provide funding to the Ph.D. Graduate Research Fellowship for research on crime, violence, and other criminal just related topics.It would be interesting to see what researchers find from their analysis of that data, especially at the Ph.D. level - it would also b

SpotCrime has mapped crime data from Columbia, SC , check out a screenshot below Columbia, SC is the largest city in the state of South Carolina and has a population of about 130k. It's located in central South Carolina , separated from West Columbia by the Congoree River. The city is also home to the University of South Carolina . Check out our University Crime Maps at UCrime.com From checking out the map, you can see that a majority of the assaults occur right outside of the University. The only description we were given in most assaults from the PD were 'Simple Assaults' so it's hard to tell if someone was seriously injured or what really happened ( another reason why we think details are vital information in staying aware of your surrounding ) Because the way we have been required to collect the information from the Columbia Police Department (via FOIA request), the data displayed on the map is a little behind - containing mostly October data. The FOIA

BALTIMORE, MD (12/11/12) --- SpotCrime – the most comprehensive online source for crime data – has surpassed 500,000 subscribers just prior to the end of 2012, making the Baltimore-based company the most visited crime mapping site in the world. “Nearly 55 percent of online users looking for incident details and crime mapping information now turn to SpotCrime,” says the company’s Founder and President, Colin Drane.  “That’s more than double our nearest competitor and has resulted in SpotCrime sending an average of 165,000 crime alert emails per day or more than five million email alerts monthly.” In addition, SpotCrime has become the most liked crime map on Facebook, garnering more than 70 percent of Facebook “likes.” The company anticipates those numbers will increase in the future due to recent expansions of its partnerships with two of the country’s largest media companies, Sinclair and Gannett. Those partnerships mean that television stations in 15 additional markets  throug

Which is more valuable when trying to inform citizens of crime in their area - Press Releases or a crime data feed? Answer: Both - when used together Check out the SpotCrime Ottawa, Canada map . This department does not offer a public and open access to crime data, so we map crime here solely from press releases sent out by the department . Press releases normally include a lot of description and detail - descriptions of suspects including what they look like and what they were wearing, a step by step account of what happened, the approximate time the incident occurred, what type of items were stolen, the date, the case report - pretty much anything that can help solve a crime or help inform the public of what has occurred. However, press releases are only released on certain crimes that the department thinks is noteworthy or important. Check out the Ottawa map again - You can see that the department releases a lot of information about robberies occurring in certain locations. T

Holy cow look at all of those crimes on the map!! That is what you'd first think looking at a crime map in a city like Baltimore . But, if you really think about it and think past all of the thefts, shootings, assaults, you start to think about how those icons got there. Think about the work and people involved to get a dot on a map. It starts with 911. A concerned resident (like you) sees something suspicious or a crime and calls 911.  Then, the 911 Dispatcher collects as much information as possible about the incident. They then decide where, how, and how many officers to dispatch to a certain location. This dispatching process takes equipment and technology. Phones, database systems, cars, radio, uniforms, badges, guns, and training. Then comes the actual officer. Well trained officers are needed to respond to each and every dot on the SpotCrime map . We have a database of well over 15 million crimes . That's A LOT of work for police officers! Once the officer r