SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

Screenshot of Mansfield, OH  on SpotCrime SpotCrime is now mapping public data from hundreds of police agencies in Ohio. If you are an Ohio subscriber you may have noticed that some of your alerts included more data than normal. That’s because some of the data we uploaded was from 2014. Interested in up-to-date data and crime alerts for your Ohio town ? Let us know and let your local police department know! Ask them to make up-to-date crime data available. Suggest they post it on their website in an open format - meaning it’s available for anyone to view, use, and share (not just SpotCrime!). Up-to-date data will allow us to send our daily and weekly alerts. And it will allow you to be a better informed citizen. Stay aware, stay safe!

SpotCrime Crime Listing of Baltimore May homicides. To create your own SpotCrime Crime List click here . Our hometown of Baltimore saw absolute madness in May. We've put together a SpotCrime Crime Listing map of the homicides and shootings that we've been able to find, address, and map which occurred in May in Baltimore city. To view the entire list, click here . There are 39 incidents on this crime list. One incident is a quintuple shooting , multiple incidents list victims being shot multiple times. Most of the victims appear to be men, but there are a few women involved. The main weapon used is a gun, however there are a few stabbings listed. The Baltimore Sun reports 43 homicides, one of the deadliest months the city has seen since the 42 homicides that occurred in August of 1990, with 115 homicides to date in 2015. The Baltimore Sun also has a homicide map compiling homicide data from May. Check out their map here . NPR notes a 76% increase in shootings ...

Over these past couple of weeks the Task Force on 21st Century Policing published a final report , and a White House Police Data Initiative was announced! We’ve been excited to see the results of police transparency and open data discussions by the White house. The Task Force on 21st Century Policing Final Report outlines 6 Pillars along with 59 recommendations for improvements to law enforcement. The Pillars include:  1. Building Trust and Legitimacy 2. Policy and Oversight 3. Technology and Social Media 4. Community Policing and Crime Reduction 5. Officer Training and Education 6. Officer Safety and Wellness.  The report concluded that  ‘Trust between law enforcement agencies and the people they protect and serve is essential in a democracy. It is key to the stability of our communities, the integrity of our criminal justice system, and the safe and effective delivery of policing services.’  We couldn’t agree more! The White House Police D...

We’ve updated the SpotCrime Crime Data Transparency Ranking that was featured on GovTech early April 2015 . Let’s start with the good: Dallas, TX - We stand corrected! When the GovTech article was published, we had Dallas at a 1 ranking because their system went down and there was no data available for a while. However, by the time the GovTech article was published their system was up and running again, but we failed to update their ranking. After they reached out to express concern for their ranking we checked into things and rightfully moved them back to a 2! Albuquerque, NM - Moved from a 1 to a 2! ABQ is now OPEN for business! They began publishing an easy to digest feed. Our residents in Albuquerque have been pretty happy about the timely updates we’ve been able to make to their SpotCrime alerts. Pittsburgh, PA - Moved from a 1 to a 2! Pittsburgh began posting data in a machine readable format! Woohoo! Jacksonville, FL - Moved from a 1 to a 2 Jacksonville turned ...

After speaking with CIO’s, IT departments, open data advocates and the like, we’re making an update to SOCS ! We’ve been pretty lucky to have so many people across the country give us their feedback. The first update we’re making an obvious one we should’ve included in the roll out. We will now be breaking out lat/long coordinates into two separate blocks. Data Type Required Permitted values Example Details Latitude Yes Geographic coordinate system 39.399262 Geo-coding accuracy. Not displayed by SpotCrime. Longitude Yes Geographic coordinate system -76.602990 Geo-coding accuracy. Not displayed by SpotCrime. Another change we’ve made to SOCS is more of a clarification than a change. In the original layout, we list the file types accepted by SOCS. We also listed examples of file types not accepted under the Open Data definition and mentioned they are still accepted under the SpotCrime Standard.  SpotCrime will still map these formats, however, they are not consider...

Last March, SpotCrime was asked to testify on the Maryland Open Data Bill SB644. You can read more about the bill and follow it on OpenStates . The bill, which was passed in April 2014 and took effect June 2014, establishes the Council on Open Data, which is tasked with promoting the policy of the State that open data be machine readable and released to the public in ways that make the data easy to find, accessible, and usable, including through the use of open data portals. Our testimony is below. We hope publishing the testimony helps others who are trying to create open data legislation in their city or state. Written Testimony Senate Bill SB644 March 2014 Oral Testimony given by Colin Drane, SpotCrime founder, March 2014 Thank you for your time today. Colin Drane, Founder SpotCrime.com, a Baltimore based public facing crime mapping website. Currently we are the most visited crime mapping website in the US with over 1 m. unique views a month and over 8 m. crim...

It’s clear that policing in America is in crisis. Particularly in my hometown Baltimore, where no less than three separate Federal investigations are currently underway into the patterns and practices of an agency that has made international headlines with the death of Freddie Gray while in their custody earlier this month. The problem is communities like Baltimore and throughout the country need effective policing. And when an agency falters like the Baltimore police department, the community and the cops who serve them suffer. At SpotCrime, I’ve always believed one of the best ways to address any problem, including crime, is transparency. That’s why when investigative reporter Stephen Janis and former Baltimore Homicide Detective Kelvin Sewell approached me about publishing a book in part on the problems inside the BPD, I agreed. The book, Why Do We Kill: The Pathology of Murder in Baltimore, examines policing in Baltimore in all its complexity and challenges.  In ...