SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

Isn’t it ironic how the day after we celebrate being thankful for what we have, we indulge, and sometimes become violent, over material items we want. Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas season. With Christmas comes shopping and with shopping comes Black Friday. Black Friday is always the Friday after Thanksgiving and derives it’s name because the day after Thanksgiving is notoriously when retailers began to start making a profit on the year; they’re ‘in the black’ on the books instead of being ‘in the red’. If you’ve ever been Black Friday shopping before, you’re familiar with the early hours, long lines, and unbeatable sales. Over the past couple of years, retailers have begun to open their doors earlier on Black Friday - as early as midnight to give shoppers the opportunity to shop the entire day. This year, some stores will be opening on Thanksgiving Day! For some reason, these earlier hours, paired with ridiculous sales, have led to crazier and larger crowds.

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

The future of policing always makes me think of the movie Minority Report, a movie that examines whether free will can exist if the future is set and known in advance. In the movie, Tom Cruise gets accused of a murder he hasn’t committed yet, and because of the technology used in the movie, is arrested. Predictive policing is a buzzword these days. So what is Predicitive Policing and does it work? Predictive Policing, also known as PREDPOL, is a police strategy created to solve crimes, prevent crimes, and predict where future crimes might happen. The main goal is to remove the opportunity to commit crime before it’s even there. Holy Minority Report, Batman! I don’t believe our laws would ever let technology ever decide the fate of a person who hasn’t committed a crime yet. However, I do think technology has and will continue to helped deter crime. There are a series of features needed - data collection, software, police, and response i in order for PREDPOL predictions and anal

When SpotCrime launched in 2007, we were one of the only companies to offer free crime mapping to every agency in US. That same year, the price of crime mapping services averaged between $20,000 to $300,000 per agency. Just recently, the reportedly largest police vendor crime mapping company, CrimeReports.com, announced they are finally giving away their crime mapping for free to all police agencies. The only other large scale crime mapping vendor that still requires payment from police departments is CrimeMapping.com. If your agency is paying for public crime mapping, we recommend you ask about the free options. We think SpotCrime's competitive and innovative approach has made an impact on the cost of public crime mapping for everyone. With over 70 million alerts sent this year alone, we feel we've made an impact in actually getting crime information to the public as well. Unfortunately, vendor crime mapping companies in the market today still lock up public crime

Ever wonder where people like JFK, Malcom X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. were shot? SpotCrime has it mapped for you. We have the ability to map and display crimes older than you and me. We're also the only crime map with a 'shooting' icon. On most maps, a shooting is categorized as an assault, however we think it's important to separate out the shootings. After all, a bullet can travel further and faster than a fist. Another feature we offer for each crime we geo-locate is Google Street View . The streets of DC have changed drastically since President Garfield's assassination, but you can still give it a look around with google street view. We've put together a list of shootings below in a SpotCrime Crime List (view the entire list here ). Make sure to scroll down to see a complete list and a link to check out each individual crime on SpotCrime. SpotCrime Crime List of famous shootings across the world. Shootings that Rocked the World John F

Ever feel like SpotCrime alerts and neighborhood watch might not be enough sometimes? SpotCrime.info - easily viewed on a mobile browser Well, we’ve compiled a list of popular security systems and their features to help you get started in your home security search. The features of most of these systems are the same when it comes to a typical monitoring system - motion sensors, video, door alarms. What’s great about the home security industry right now is the technology. Technology has allowed home automation to become a huge (and really cool) trend. Home automation gives users the ability to make their house ‘smarter’ - including things like remote thermostat control, water control, and light control. We’ve tried to highlight all features of each system we could find by searching each company's website. We’ve also tried to include a price range for each.  Wondering our word of advice on which system to choose? It all depends on what you, the user, is looking for. S

Starting a neighborhood watch may not seem as daunting a task as it sounds. We’ve learned from interaction with our subscribers over the past couple years that all you need are interested and informed neighbors. All it takes is one organized and motivated person to make a community watch successful. In fact, in one community, we’ve encountered one resident forwarding on our SpotCrime email alerts to over 100 neighbors. Amazing! Here are some suggestions and tips we’ve come up with when trying to create your own neighborhood watch of your own. we have to creating your own neighborhood watch Collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses of neighbors interested in participating. Knowing where your neighbors live will help you learn the boundaries of your watch. Establish a line of communication. We’ve seen anything as technical as a neighborhood watch website to Facebook groups and pages , Yahoo! Groups , Google Groups , all of the way to something as