SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

Recent Proposals to California Public Records Act will Limit Accountability and Transparency

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:01:00 +0000

Dear California Subscriber,

We’ve just been made aware of some recent proposals to change California Public Records Act laws that will limit accountability and transparency of local governments in California.

This is a serious challenge to the California Public Records Act and could seriously affect the public's access to crime data.

Here is the letter from First Amendment Coalition describing the changes: http://firstamendmentcoalition.org/threat-watch-browns-budget-cuts-slash-services-spike-costs-for-access-to-public-records/gov-brown-veto-cpra-threats-in-budget-bill/

Here is a link to the legislation: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB71&search_keywords=

We encourage you to reach out to Governor Jerry Brown’s office.

You can reach Governor Jerry Brown via email here:

http://gov.ca.gov/m_contact.php

by phone at (916) 445-2841

Let him know you value government accountability and transparency in California. Ask him to veto the the provisions of SB 71 contained in section 4 of the bill.

Kind regards,

The SpotCrime Team

Feedback@SpotCrime.com

619.663.7768

Please like us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/pG0XPh

Montgomery County, TX Crime Map

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:14:00 +0000

SpotCrime is mapping Montgomery County, TX!

SpotCrime collects incidents from the Montgomery County Sheriff's office directly. Montgomery County, TX is located just north of Houston and has a population of over 450k. The county is part of the Sugar Land-Houston-Baytown metro area and is one of the top 25 fastest growing counties in the US.

The Sheriff's Office is the 7th largest Sheriff's Office in Texas! Bordering counties and cities to Montgomery, in addition to Houston, include Harris County, Walker County, Waller County, and Liberty County.

Fun Fact - Did you know that a cowboy hat and cowboy boots are, most of the time, part of the uniform at Sheriff's Offices and the State Police (Rangers) in Texas? What a great perk to the job!

Interested in learning about crime in your Montgomery County or Houston area? Make sure to sign up for your local crime alert (it's free!). Stay aware, stay safe.

SpotCrime Supplies Crime Data for Hackathons Nationwide

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 16:10:00 +0000

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 public city data to solve issues for residents.

SpotCrime is providing crime data as far back as 2007 available for download to any hackathon. We've been contacted by numerous hackathon participants nationwide and have been providing them with crime data.

We're hoping programmers and developers will use the data to create something interesting for residents to become better informed about crime in their area. Or perhaps they'll create something that helps predict crime. Or maybe something that shows what helps deter crime. Or maybe even create a bigger, better, and cooler version of SpotCrime! Either way, we hope the data will foster innovation within communities and prove how opening up crime data is very valuable.

These kinds of events help to open up public data and make data easily available to residents. Whether it be transit data or crime data - it's another way to foster trust between the public and government. Participating in a hackathon and interested in using public crime data? Contact us and we'll get you set up to download the data - for free.

Roseburg, OR Crime Map

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Wed, 29 May 2013 23:17:00 +0000

Roseburg, OR is located in the Pacific North West of the US. It's the county seat of Douglas County and has a population of over 21k, a suitable population for a city that's only about 10 square miles in size.

Check out the Roseburg SpotCrime map below. Most incidents are arrests made by the police department for warrants.

Roseburg, OR SpotCrime map

The city can be found off of I-5 and route 99, south of Eugene and north of Medford. Roseburg is located on the Umpqua River Valley, making it an ideal location for many vineyards and wine tasting. It is the birthplace of the Oregon Pinot Noir.

The town is also where the current governor of Oregon - Governor Ted Kulongoski - practiced medicine from 1973 to 1986 where we was an emergency room physician. Gov. Kulongoski is currently serving his third term as Oregon's Governor. In 2012, Rolling Stone Magazine name him one of "The Quiet Ones: 12 Leaders Who Get Things Done".

Roseburg is also home to the founder of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Bobby Henderson, an organization Henderson created when writing a letter to the Kansas State school board in regards to a hearing to decide whether the Theory of Design should be taught alongside the Theory of Evolution.

Live in or heading to Roseburg for some wine tasting or to enjoy the Oregon rural country? Make sure to check out SpotCrime or MyLocalCrime to stay informed of crime in the area. And don't forgot to sign up for your free email alerts. Stay aware, stay safe!

One Million Strong. Thank You!

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Fri, 10 May 2013 21:35:00 +0000

We’ve hit a new milestone after 6 years at this crime mapping business.

We had over 1 million unique visitors to SpotCrime websites last month! One million visitors strong to a more informed and safer community. Thank you!

This is another notch of achievement added to our mission of keeping the public informed with timely, relevant, informative, and useful crime information. We believe this number to be larger than all the other crime mapping companies combined, and note - we have never charged a police agency a penny.

We’d like to thank some agencies for recently having the courage to move to an open data format for crime data. Being fully open with the public is a big step, and recent agencies that deserve attention are:

Salt Lake City. Based on experience, we never thought any agency in Utah would be open with their crime data. Thanks for bucking the trend, Salt Lake!

Alameda County, CA. The Sheriff’s office recently moved from a proprietary to open display of crime data. Their new system allows and encourages the data to be shared and used by anyone. Kudos Alameda County!

Bexar County, TX. Bexar County joined it’s county seat, San Antonio, and began publishing their crime data. Now residents in the police jurisdictions of Bexar County and San Antonio can enjoy consuming and sharing crime information together. Way to go Bexar County!

We’d also like to give a special shout out to New York City. Recent legislation indicates that the only large city left in the US to make any data available to its public may soon start doing just that! Let’s hope the legislation encourages open data and the NYPD does not create a convoluted system that restricts access and sharing.

At the other end of the open data spectrum, you’ll find Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Metro Police Department recently rolled back their open system in favor of a proprietary system that specifically restricts you from copying down and sharing the data.

If you've been to Vegas, thought about going to Vegas, watched a movie set in Vegas, or live in Vegas, please consider reaching out to Sheriff Gillespie (email: sheriff@lvmpd.com) and asking why crime data is now restricted.

Many police departments across the US are announcing partnerships with crime mapping companies. Typically, these crime mapping companies add some type of restrictions that prevent the public from sharing the information with their neighbors openly. We believe crime mapping is good, but open data is better.

We see a lot of crime information here at SpotCrime. From prowlers to shoplifting to car thefts to burglaries to bar fights to sexual assaults to brutal murders. Why would any police agency want to limit how this information is shared?

Please ask your police department to have the courage to make this data fully open without restrictions. And ask them to trust the public to use this data for positive results.

Thanks for subscribing to SpotCrime. We appreciate your support and interest in public crime data!

Sincerely,

Colin Drane
Founder
619.663.7768
feedback@SpotCrime.com

Miami-Dade, FL now updated DAILY!

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Thu, 02 May 2013 23:18:00 +0000

SpotCrime is now mapping crime in Miami-Dade, FL on a daily basis!

Crime mapped in southern Miami-Dade

Miami-Dade County is located in southeastern Florida along the coast and has a population of about 2.5 million people. The county is commonly called Miami, Miami-Dade, Dade County, Dade, Metro-Dade, or greater Miami. We like to call the area Miami-Dade because the police department is goes by the Miami-Dade Police Department. The department is a full service metropolitan police department serving unincorporated areas of the County. And make sure not to confuse Miami-Dade PD with the Miami PD because they are two separate departments. But don't worry - we are mapping Miami, the largest city in the county, too!

Broward County, Collier County, and Monroe County border Miami-Dade. Companies like Brightstar Corp, Burger King, and Norwegian Cruise Lines are headquartered in the county. The county also holds the majority of sports venues including arenas and stadiums for the Miami Dolphins (NFL), Miami Hurricanes (NCAA Football), and Miami Heat (NBA).

Interested in learning about crime that occurs in the Miami-Dade and Miami area? Check out SpotCrime.com or MyLocalCrime.com. If you're on a mobile device, make sure to check SpotCrime.info. And don't forget to sign up for your local crime alerts! And remember - we always map crime and send alerts free of charge to departments and residents. Stay aware, stay safe.

Waller County, TX has a crime map!

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 22:46:00 +0000

SpotCrime is now mapping crime in Waller County, TX!

Waller County, TX crime incidents mapped on SpotCrime

Waller County is located outside of Houston in the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metro area and next to Harris County, Montgomery County, and Fort Bend County. The county seat is Hempstead and holds cities like Katy and Prairie View.

The county has a population of about 44k, and the metro area has a population of over a million people!

The metro area was listed as the fifth best performing metro area in the US in 2009 and is home to businesses like Igloo.

Interested in crime in your area? Make sure to check out SpotCrime and sign up for your customizable SpotCrime alert.

Stay aware, stay safe!

SpotCrime Delivers Nearly 7 Million Email Alerts in March

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:32:00 +0000

SpotCrime delivered just under 7 million email alerts in the month of March! We are excited that we've reached this massive number are we are on our way to 10 million alerts a month.

We've found that our email alerts are used highly by neighborhood and community watch groups. This is because each alert is tailored specifically for our users and can be forwarded easily. In some cases, one community watch member will forward a SpotCrime alert to 300 neighbors!

Screen shot of the map in the new SpotCrime weekly alert

Our goal is to deliver public crime data to every citizen who is interested in knowing about criminal activity in their neighborhood. With nearly 7 million email alerts monthly and 1 million monthly visitors to our websites, not only does this benefit the public, it also shows there is a growing demand for this public data, and that more and more police departments are opening up and sharing crime data. And most importantly, we believe it helps in the fight against crime.

Interested in receiving and informative SpotCrime alerts? First, make sure we are mapping crime in your area. If we aren't, reach out to us and your local police department. Let them know about SpotCrime. Then, sign up for alerts here. We'll send you an alert when crime occurs around your location. And remember, it's free!

Hamilton County, OH - we've got a map for that

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 23:09:00 +0000

Check out the SpotCrime Hamilton County, OH map!

Hamilton County is the third most populous county in Ohio, mainly because the county seat is Cincinnati - the third most populous city in Ohio. Hamilton County population is about 802k.

A screen shot of the SpotCrime Hamilton County map

SpotCrime collects crime data from the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office to create crime maps and email alerts for residents. The HCSO patrols unincorporated areas of the county, including ten unincorporated townships - Anderson, Colerain, Columbia, Crosby, Green, Harrison, Miami, Sycamore, Symmes, Whitewater, and Village of North Bend. You can easily search your local township on the front page of SpotCrime.

We are also collecting crime data from Cincinnati, check out the SpotCrime Cincy map here.

Interested in learning about crime in your area? Head to SpotCrime or MyLocalCrime. If you're on your mobile device, use SpotCrime.info or our iPhone app. And make sure to sign up for your local email crime alert and SMS text message crime alert. Stay aware, stay safe.

Spotting Crime in Amherst, NY and the Buffalo area

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 22:19:00 +0000

Amherst, NY is located in western New York outside of Buffalo. Amherst is Buffalo's largest suburb with a population of about 122k.

AMherts crime data on SpotCrime.info

In 2010 and in 2011 Amherst was ranked by CNNMoney.com as Top 100 places to live. In 2011 and 2012, the town was ranked as one of America's 100 Best Communities for Young People by America's Promise Alliance. Sounds like a great place to live!

And in 2011 it was ranked 6th safest out of 400 cities by the CQPress. That's great! And now there is a SpotCrime map to help keep the residents safe. Our hope is that the more people who are aware of what's happening in their area, the safer the community will become.

SpotCrime is now mapping crime information from several departments in the Amherst area including Amherst, Buffalo, North Tonawanda, Niagara County, and Cheektowaga. You can view also view all of these areas on our 'sister' site MyLocalCrime and our mobile friendly site SpotCrime.info.

We are also partnered with local news station WGRZ - they host our crime map on their site for residents to view. Head to their site to keep up on the latest news in the Amherst area.

Want to see your town on SpotCrime? Let us know and your local police department know. If a police department makes the data available, we will map it and send alert for free!

Make sure to sign up for your local crime alerts. Stay aware, stay safe!

Bexar County, TX is on SpotCrime!

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 23:08:00 +0000

SpotCrime is now mapping Bexar County, TX!

SpotCrime Bexar County map zoomed out.

Bexar County holds the city of San Antonio. That's why it looks like there is crime mapped in a circle - almost like the shape of a donut with a hole in the middle. Now that SpotCrime started mapping Bexar County, we are able to provide a bigger picture of crime for residents in the San Antonio area.

You can view crime on the front page of SpotCrime or you can search a SpotCrime City Map. View Bexar County's SpotCrime map here. View San Antonio SpotCrime map here.

If you don't prefer SpotCrime maps, make sure to check out our 'sister' site - MyLocalCrime. MLC presents the same information as SpotCrime, only in a different format.

If you want to stay up to date on breaking news in the area, make sure to turn your channel to News 4 WOAI, our news partner in the area. They host SpotCrime maps on their website under their Crime Tracker section and cover local San Antonio news

And finally, don't forget to sign up for your local crime alerts! We'll send you alert when crime is mapped in your area. And now, on Sundays, well send you a mini synopsis of crime over the past two weeks with our new Weekly Crime Alert. Stay aware, and stay safe.

Dayton, Ohio Crime is on SpotCrime!

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 00:07:00 +0000

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!

How SpotCrime Can Save Taxpayers $180 Million

noreply@blogger.com (Colin D) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:33:00 +0000

Recently the Benton County Sheriff (Arkansas) announced a new public crime map. Local news OzarksFirst.com reported that the map was paid for by a $15,000 grant. Not a large sum, and often crime mapping vendors have similar contact costs charging $150 a month for public crime mapping services.

Using a simple discounted cash flow valuation of a police agency contract at $1,800 a year at a 10% discount rate, you'll get a total valuation of the vendor mapping contract at $18,000 (divide 10% into $1,800). Very similar to the amount paid by Benton.

We have seen some agencies pay larger sums for public crime mapping. Most notably, Seattle Police Department spent approximately $350,000 for their public mapping system.

So how do we get to $180 million in savings?

Since we are using back of the envelope numbers, we are going to be very conservative in our estimated costs. We'll use an approximate cost of $10,000 per police agency for public crime mapping.

Why use $10k? It is less than the average cost of a public crime map and allows for the costs of making crime data open to the public. We estimate the cost per agency to be less than $2,000, but to be extra conservative, we are reducing the savings to $10,000 per agency and excluding larger projects like Seattle.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) states that there are 18,000 police agencies in the US.

Multiply the number of agencies by the savings of free public crime mapping, you get $180 million in tax payer savings.

We think this a very true conservative estimate of potential savings to police agencies.

Since we are advocating an open data approach, we are not estimating the potential multiplier effect of opening up this vital data source. As this data becomes fully open to the public, we expect astonishing innovations in how the data is analysed and delivered to the public. At a minimum, we are seeing a 2x reach of crime data when the crime data is made fully public verses using a closed proprietary systems. Not only do closed proprietary "public" crime maps typically cost much more than open data distribution, proprietary crime maps reach less of the public by the fact that they are a single source and a restricted access point.

Please ask your police agency to consider open data instead of a closed proprietary mapping systems.

Save money, increase safety, and encourage innovation. Seems to make sense.

We'll be posting this on Facebook. We welcome your comments there.

Colin Drane
Founder
SpotCrime.com
877.410.1607

Non-conservative estimation of savings here:

The BJS estimates that two thirds of the 18k police agencies are small. Using a less conservative estimate of saving for the small agencies of $15k. You get a $180 m. savings just for the smaller two thirds.

For larger agencies, we'll use and estimate of $40 k (WAG estimation). For the remainder of the 6,000 agencies the savings could be another $240 m.

Giving us a total of $420 million in savings for public crime mapping technology expenditures. Nearly a half a billion!

Another Police Department moves away from single source proprietary vendor

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:08:00 +0000

View the map at SpotCrime.com, SpotCrime.info, or the SpotCrime Salt Lake City Map

Salt Lake City, UT is now on SpotCrime!

We applaud the Salt Lake Police Department for making their Calls for Service log available in an open source format.

The webpage gives users the ability to view and sort the information. After 48 hours, the calls will be archived and will still be viewable at the data.slcgov.com website here

The new webpage is run internally by the department, not an outside vendor. This is a great step in the right direction for government transparency with the public. The new webpage will easily allow both public and press to view, use, and share the information without the threat of a lawsuit.

Our hope is the release of this data will make more people aware - and hopefully more people will be able to do interesting and innovative things with the data.

Check out the YouTube video below Chief Burbank's announcement of the new Calls For Service webpage. And make sure to sign up for your local crime alert. Stay aware, stay safe!

The Great EBS Scare of 1971

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:10:00 +0000

Have you ever heard one of those Emergency Alert System messages while listening to the radio or watching TV? In my local area, they do these kinds of messages whenever there is an Amber Alert or a flash flood warning or any other sudden or severe weather warnings.

These tests are set up to make sure the stations can get proper information to viewers in case of an emergency. They are controlled by the Emergency Alert System which sends a message to all TV stations letting them know what to broadcast. Think of all of the viewers for one TV station. Pretty powerful tool, huh? What if one day that tool malfunctioned?

Well it did, in 1971. A worker at CONELRAD (now known as the Emergency Alert System) sent the wrong message to all of the stations. Read more about the debacle here. The incorrect message was sent out, causing stations to stop TV and radio shows in order to wait for a message from the President. There was no emergency, but the stations didn't figure out the message was sent in operator error for 26 long minutes.

This is an example of the problem with single distribution alert networks. Before technology boomed, it was too costly to get information form multiple sources to a mass amount of people in the old days. Now, the cost is much less with wireless and Internet technologies

That's why at SpotCrime we want to be part of the solution, but we also don't want to be the single solution for crime data. We want to be one of many alert systems that sends the same message out to the masses of people. If your police department already uses one of the many alerting-mapping-messaging-crimetipping systems available today, that's OK. SpotCrime still wants to map your city - and we aren't trying to replace any system the police department may already be using.

So, if you don't see your police department on SpotCrime, let us know. And remember, if a police department sends public crime data to SpotCrime, we will map it and send alerts - for free!

How to Unsubscribe from SpotCrime Alerts

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:02:00 +0000

We get this request occasionally for email alerts and SMS (text) alerts. It's a fairly simple process. If you do unsubscribe, we hope it's because there is no more crime in your area ;)

1. To unsubscribe from SMS (text) messaging, log in to your SpotCrime account here. Copy and paste this URL into your browser if the link doesn't work for you http://spotcrime.com/login.php

2. Click on 'My Profile' in the upper right corner of the screen. The 'My Profile' page should look like this

3. Uncheck the 'Cell Phone Message' box.

4. Click the 'Submit' button at the bottom.

Voilà! You should no longer receive SMS texts from SpotCrime.

You can also unsubscribed from email alerts at the profile page as well. Just uncheck the 'Email' box and then click 'Submit' (this is also a great place to update your address and radius)

If that doesn't seem to be working, you can always contact us here. Just make sure to provide the email address and/or phone number you want unsubscribed.

And remember, if you change your mind you can always log in to your SpotCrime account and resubscribe whenever you want :)

Kansas City is Mapped!

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:05:00 +0000

So which Kansas City do we have mapped? Both! Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO are both mapped on SpotCrime!

Although the cities share a name, they are in two different states with two different governments and two different police departments. Even business laws like zoning and happy hour beer prices are different!

Referred to as KCMO and KCK, when someone mentions Kansas City, they are typically referring to KCMO. This is because KCMO is relatively larger than KCK and holds things like the airport and sports teams. KCMO has a population of over 475k while KCK only has approximately 150k

Live on the border of the two cities? Even thought there are two different police departments for the cities that share no real border (except a dotted line on a Google map), you can now find all Kansas City crime on SpotCrime - check out the crime around your address on the front page of SpotCrime

Crime around the border of Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO

Be sure to sign up for your local crime alerts for your KCMO or KCK area! Stay aware, stay safe.

Why Crimetip.us?

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

We recently rolled out with a crime tip section of SpotCrime - Crimetip.us

Submit your tip at Crimetip.us

Why?

It seems pretty logical to add a crime tip link next to crime information. With more people coming to SpotCrime than any other agency, it made sense to offer a crime tip service that was easy, fast, and anonymous. And, well, we thought crime tips needed a makeover.

Crimetip.us is designed to work on a mobile device, your desktop, or laptop - without an app that you have to download. Just add a location, details about the tip including date, location, and time and any personal information you'd like to provide (or just stay anonymous). Once the 'Submit Tip' button is selected, a very unique URL will is created that is shared only with the proper authorities.

There is a 'Submit a Tip' link on every state map page, city map page, and crime detail page of SpotCrime - thats over 20 million pages worth of crimes and maps!

Our mission is to be the best public crime distribution system in the world. And in turn, help keep communities informed and safe. We're hoping the new and easily accessible crime tip section will help reduce crime in neighborhoods worldwide. Stay aware, stay safe!

iStolen: What to do when your mobile is stolen

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:57:00 +0000

'Apple Picking' is on the rise across the US, and it unfortunately has nothing to do with a honeycrisp or pink lady. ‘Apple Picking’ refers to stolen Apple products. Check out the SpotCrime crime list we created a couple of months ago by searching the words ‘iphone’ or 'ipad' on SpotCrime.

View the full SpotCrime crime list here

An ABC article states that the FCC attributes 30-40 percent of robberies in major cities to cell phones.
In NYC, Mayor Bloomberg blames the increase in the city’s crime rate on iPhone thefts.

Fortunately, for you cheap-non-technological Android users (ha-ha), you don’t seem to be having this problem. You can continue to check out crime in your area via SpotCrime.info in your mobile browser or the SpotCrime layer on Layar.

So, what to do if you find yourself unable to feed your need to tweet a picture of your best duckface in the bathroom or lacking the means to update your newsfeed informing you friend list of 2,300+ that you just checked in at happy hour...by yourself? (Head here for some tips on what not to share on social media)

First, I should say that you should take proper precautions to not become a victim of crime. Stay aware of your surroundings. Don't display your expensive mobile devices. And you should also make sure that your device is set up with iCloud or an app like Lookout (this app is available for Android - for free...cheapo's).

But, if you just so happen to find yourself at the wrong metro stop and are referring to your SpotCrime app to see if you should run for cover from criminals or just hop on the next available train, only to you find your Apple device plucked from your pocket, here are some suggestions on what to do to try to get your device back.

1. Let the local Police Department know. They’ll help you file a report. Your incident might be connected with other incidents around the same area and could help solve a series of crimes!

2. Delete personal information (remotely). You can do this via iCloud. Just head to iCloud.com on your computer, login with your Apple ID, and delete away.

3. While you’re logged into iCloud, you might want to take a look at the 'Find My iPhone' option. This will pinpoint your device if it’s on. If it's off, you can select the option to be emailed when the device is turned back on. Take note of the location. It’s something you’ll want to eventually share with the police.

4. Call your service provider and cancel your cell phone service. Sometimes this is easier with a police report (See step 1). This will ensure that the thief won’t run up your phone bill.

5. Change your passwords to your email, facebook, banking apps, iTunes, etc - anything that you could access from your device. This will help prevent possible identity theft.

6. NEVER try to recover the device yourself. The person who stole from you most likely won’t hesitate to hurt you during a confrontation. Let the police take care of that.

7. Be happy. It was just a phone. You weren’t injured or harmed (hopefully). Phones can be replaced. You can not.

Stay aware and stay safe! Make sure to sign up for your local crime alerts at SpotCrime to stay up to date on crime in your area.

Swatting: A Dangerous Prank

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:34:00 +0000

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. Both officers and victims are placed in danger because either party may try to defend themselves. The seriousness of the call creates a scenario that holds so much confusion and panic, it's surprising the incidents haven't turned out for the worse.

The calls cost the police department and residents more than just monetarily. They take valuable time and resources from departments that could be used on real crimes. The Ashton Kutcher swatting call was estimated to have cost the city of Los Angeles $10,000.

It's not just celebrities being targeted. These swatting calls can be traced back to as early as 2002 and in 2012, high profile bloggers have been the target of these prank calls. An example is District Attorney Patrick Frey being targeted by a swatter. Another is Erick Erickson being targeted in the Atlanta area. Both bloggers had written about convicted felon Brett Kimberlin and assumed a connection. Kimberlin denies having anything to do with the swatting calls.

Check out the 911 call made to Patrick Frey's house. The caller claimed to be Frey and that he had killed his wife.

Most swatting calls go unsolved. So far, a 12 year old boy has been charged in connect with swatting calls to Bieber and Kutchers home. If you know of someone making prank emergency phone calls make sure to contact your local police department. The calls aren't funny and are very dangerous.

Make sure to check out your local crime map to stay up to date on crime in your area. Stay aware, stay safe!

School Gun Threats SpotCrime Crime List

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:56:00 +0000

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 the kids in hopes it would ease their worries.

I never thought something like that could be breathed in the small town I coach, however, Newton is a small town just like mine. And that's something scary to think about.

When I got home, I did a Google search to see if my local paper covered the story. I didn't find my town's story, but this seemed to be a recurring trend the past couple of days since the Newton tragedy.

Check out the SpotCrime crime list of a few of the incidents I found. I only hit the tip of the iceberg on this Google search - the threats stretched across the US.

School districts and police departments are taking all threats seriously. They are taking time to investigate each threat and even make arrests when necessary. Some of the threats were rumors spread throughout the school by students overhearing other students conversations. Some threats were made on Facebook and were directed toward a certain teacher. Most of the students identified with the threats were first examined by mental health officials, then passed on to the local police department.

Let your kids know that if they hear anything to report it to a teacher. And make sure to explain to your kids the seriousness behind making empty threats. It's not funny, they could get expelled, and it could be punishable by law.

SpotCrime Historical Crime Data Still Available to Public Free of Charge

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:39:00 +0000

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 be interesting to see what researchers come up with after analyzing the SpotCrime database!

The SpotCrime database is available for download by emailing Feedback@SpotCrime.com and asking for the historical data. After you fill out our disclaimer, we will make the data available to you, free of charge.

Columbia, SC is on SpotCrime!

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:32:00 +0000

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 process in Columbia takes up to 15 business day so we are hoping to get more data again soon and to update the map for our Columbia users!

We've found that inquiries from residents go long way, so if you would like to see more up-to-date information on SpotCrime, reach out to the local PD and ask them to send data to SpotCrime. Remind them that if they send us data, we will map it and send out alerts - for free! And, SpotCrime is currently the most viewed crime mapping website in the US (we have over half a million subscribers) so we are a great and free way to disseminate information to the public!

SpotCrime Surpasses Half a Million Subscribers - Online Source for Crime Data Most Visited Crime Mapping Service Worldwide

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:16:00 +0000

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 throughout the U.S. – including Atlanta, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C. – will now carry crime data generated by SpotCrime on their websites.

In addition, SpotCrime's "MyLocalCrime" brand has been chosen by the national news site Topix.com as its sole provider for crime maps. Topix's viewers can now easily access a crime map for every section of the U.S.

SpotCrime’s “Crime Transparency Model™” enables it to pull crime incident data from multiple sources in close to real time, including local county and city police departments and validated news sources, to produce a comprehensive and accurate record of local crime information and locations.

“The idea for SpotCrime came about because I felt very strongly that the more people who are aware of what is occurring in their communities, the higher the chance that a community will be proactive in the fight against crime,” says Drane.

Drane’s original idea has made it one of the most visited hyperlocal news sites on the web. With continued subscriber growth and retention, the company’s website and other applications now have a 5-year proven track record of effectively engaging the public with timely, relevant crime information.“SpotCrime’s intent has always been to provide access to all relevant crime information, spurring citizen interaction,” Drane explains. “I believe our growth relative to our competitors speaks to the power of that agenda.”

Noting that neighborhoods and communities throughout the country are taking full advantage of the power of the Internet, sharing SpotCrime emails, and discussing crime data with each other, Drane adds, “In some cases, we’ve seen one of our emails shared with hundreds of neighbors at a time, increasing the reach of that information exponentially and generating greater awareness that, I believe, ultimately will drive new measures that lead to a reduction in crime.”

Since it was founded in 2007, SpotCrime has employed numerous mechanisms to increase user access to the crime data it gathers. While SpotCrime has continued to attract subscribers through partnerships with major U.S. media companies, the company has also launched an iPhone application which allows users to obtain detailed descriptions of the crimes listed and share crime incidents with others via email.

Two years ago, SpotCrime forged a relationship with DIRECTV, where DIRECTV viewers made SpotCrime’s TV App the fastest growing application offered by the popular video service, surpassing even Facebook.

Earlier this year, SpotCrime offered to map crime data for any police department in the country that requests it, at no charge. That decision came about after Drane discovered that some of his competitors were charging police agencies for exclusive mapping services then reselling that crime data for commercial purposes.

“Knowing how much people need that crime data to avoid harm to person or property, we wanted to make our crime mapping services freely available without locking police departments into restrictive contracts with a single vendor,” notes Drane.

“Mapping crime data transparently for police departments will help meet the public’s increasing demand for accurate, up-to-date crime data, allowing departments to devote more of their budgets to putting police on the street,” Drane concludes.

For more information about SpotCrime, visit the company’s website at www.spotcrime.com.

Press Releases v Crime Data Feed

noreply@blogger.com (Brittany) — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:27:00 +0000

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. This raises a lot of questions - don’t robberies happen in other parts of the city too? Why were only those locations selected? Why were only robberies selected? As a resident or visitor to the city, wouldn’t you want to know about not only robberies, but other crimes too? Why is it left to the department determine if one crime is more noteworthy than the other? Aren’t all robberies (and all crimes) important to know about?

Now, check out the Ottawa, Canada crime map that is run by a vendor the police department pays to display public crime data on their site. This map most likely shows crime incidents pulled from the department’s RMS. There are a lot more incidents on this map than the SpotCrime map. However, the description of the crime is short and sometimes non-existent.

We’ve found that in the crime mapping realm, descriptions and details are of high demand with the public. People want to know as much about a crime as possible. They want to become better informed so they know how to prevent similar crimes from happening, to prevent themselves from becoming a victim, and to help the police department solve crimes.

Take our Frederick, MD map for example. We have been unable to collect a crime incident log from the department and have resorted to press releases.

Frederick crimes are always the most viewed crimes on our site. This is unusual, considering Frederick’s population is about 66k when typically our other most viewed crimes are from big cities like New York, Dallas, or Austin.

People in Frederick want to know about crime in their city and because the press releases are very detailed, the narrative gives residents the opportunity learn about the entire incident. This leaves more information to share amongst friends, families, and neighbors and more information for residents to become better informed.

We feel a public crime data feed isn’t complete without detail. Incident type, date, time, location, and a detailed description. Does your local police department release as much detail as possible on crimes in your neighborhood?