Author Archives: SpotCrime

Typically, when a police agencies releases CAD or RMS data, they release block level address locations. SpotCrime will ask police agencies for latitude and longitude coordinates, block level addresses, and even exact addresses (all addresses we receive are masked to the block level upon publishing to the web). Lat/long coordinates are a part of ourContinue reading “Location Information is Imperative for Effective and Informative Policing”

Compared to a couple of years ago, there has been exponential growth in the number of cities opening up crime data. How should success be measured? We’ve checked out Chicago and Louisville – two cities who have been publishing crime data openly for a couple of years – to see what’s being done with data. TheseContinue reading “Impacts of Open Crime Data”

Hundreds of police agencies and sheriff offices are making their crime data openly available. We wanted to make sure we highlighted the great qualities of an open crime data feed and continue to implore agencies to make their crime data feeds as useful and complete as possible.  We’ve found that sharing data openly is a goodContinue reading “Qualities of a Successful Open Crime Dataset”

SpotCrime was asked to testify on the Maryland Open Data Bill SB644. You can read more about the bill 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 readableContinue reading “SpotCrime Testimony from MD Open Data Bill SB644”

SpotCrime had been asked to submit testimony on an upcoming Kansas Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) hearing that discussed changes to the current FOIA laws, bringing transparency in Kansas into the 21st century. You can read the testimony we submitted below. This is not our first time providing testimony on access to public information. In 2014, weContinue reading “Testimony on Kansas FOIA Law Changes”

There are already methods for agencies to share information among each other like N-Dex, NEIM, GJXDM. But what about sharing information openly with the public?Currently, Baltimore shares data differently than Baltimore County who shares it differently than Annapolis, MD who shares it differently than Arlington, VA who shares it differently than Dallas, TX who shares it differently thanContinue reading “The SpotCrime Open Crime Standard (SOCS)”

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. WhatContinue reading “Open Data Resources”

George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Philando Castille. The list goes on. All were victims of failed policing – use of force, implicit bias, ineffective policing, and bad community relationships. Good policing relationships are based on trust. To obtain trust, transparency is needed to cultivate healthy police-community relationships fostering an effective and open accountability feedback loop between theContinue reading “Open Crime Data Can Address Bad Policing”

One of the biggest drivers behind the current police reform demands in the US is police data. There are a myriad of police datasets available within a police department that paint a picture of the inner workings and behavior of its officers with the public. There are many different datasets circulating within a police agency. OneContinue reading “The Most Common Barriers to Accessing Police Data”