I’ve put together a list of open crime data resources in hope it will help answer questions like how, what, why, and how much. Or any other questions that may be thrown your way.
Crime Data related resources
SpotCrime Open Crime Data Standard (SOCS)
SOCS has received great feedback from agencies across the country. What is the most interesting is if agencies don’t follow SOCS completely, it has been used as a good starting point for open crime data initiatives. Agencies like Montgomery County (MD) and NORCOM (Seattle area) utilize SOCS. http://blog.spotcrime.com/2014/03/the-spotcrime-open-crime-data-standard.html
The Police Foundation’s Police Data Initiative
The White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing launched in 2014 and kick started the Police Data Initiative – an initiative encouraging police agencies to be open and transparent with crime data. The portal is run by The Police Foundation who notes ‘Open data improves transparency, accountability, and legitimacy, enhancing the relationship between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve and protect, while encouraging innovation and supporting science.’ https://www.policedatainitiative.org/
The Sunlight Foundation
This is a good resource on learning more about benefits, use, and progression of open crime data across the US. The Sunlight Foundation is nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for open government globally and uses technology to make government more accountable to all. They’ve also partnered with the White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing Police Data Initiative and curate the Hall of Justice, a searchable inventory of publicly available criminal justice datasets and research. https://sunlightfoundation.com/our-work/open-cities/
Code For America
A network of people who build government services that are simple, effective, and easy to use, for everyone. https://www.codeforamerica.org/brigade/projects?q=Crime
US City Open Data Census
A partnership between Sunlight Foundation, Code for America, and the Open Knowledge Foundation to keep track of open data in the US. Check out their crime column to see which cities are open with crime data. http://us-city.census.okfn.org/
Other resources (general open data)
JHU Gov Ex best practices http://govex.jhu.edu/
OpenPrism is a search engine that allows you to search a multitude of open data portals across the world all at once. http://openprism.thomaslevine.com/
Philly Open Data resources https://www.opendataphilly.org/pages/resourcesPhilly has been open with crime data for years.
The Open Data 500 http://www.opendata500.com/ SpotCrime is a featured company
GovTech 100 http://www.govtech.com/100/ SpotCrime is a featured company
Are I missing something? Let me know and I’ll add it to the list!
Brittany Suszan 