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The Most Common Barriers to Accessing Police Data
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.
Latest Posts
The Undue Influence of Police Technology Companies on Open Crime Data
Police budgets are used not only to hire officers, but also to purchase tech from companies to aid in police work. Anything from body cams to surveillance tech to in-car computers to RMS/CAD systems are typically hired out to a private vendor company rather than created and maintained in house by the police departments themselves. We came across a paper by Elizabeth E Joh published at the NYU School Law Review…
Keep readingMarsy’s Law continues to hinder police transparency in Florida
In 2019, we published an op-ed at the University of Florida Brechner Center Freedom of Information outlining the issues Marsy’s Law has caused in the collection of public crime information. Two years later, Marsy’s Law in Florida continues to take its toll on police transparency. Many other states have implemented their own version of Marsy’s Law without creating problems related to police transparency now faced in Florida. It appears other states have found…
Keep readingArnold Ventures Criminal Justice Data Report Aligns With SpotCrime’s Approach To Open Crime Data
Arnold Ventures, a non-profit with focus on criminal justice reform, recently published the report “Because the Road to Reform is Paved by Data. CAMPAIGN FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE DATA MODERNIZATION”. The report notes that effective police reform relies on gathering data in order to effectively assess the criminal justice system and support reforms and restore public trust. SpotCrime is no stranger to navigating the bureaucratic and technical divide between police agencies when it…
Keep readingSpotCrime Transparency Ranking 2020 Update
The SpotCrime Crime Data Transparency Ranking was created in 2013 and ranks cities on how open they are with crime data. Periodically, we update the ranking to reflect the ever-changing landscape of open crime data. This year we have decided to make a few changes in regard to our ranking procedures, all which are outlined below. The good news is there has been an increase in deployment and use of open crime data portals.…
Keep readingA Call for Researchers to Embrace Robust, Open Crime Data
Below is the paper I authored that was published in The American Society of Criminology’s newsletter The Criminologist. The American Society of Criminology (ASC) is an international organization whose members pursue scholarly, scientific and professional knowledge concerning the measurement, etiology, consequences, prevention, control, and treatment of crime and delinquency. ASC publications consist of the following: the journals, Criminology and Criminology & Public Policy, and the newsletter, The Criminologist. See my contribution on page 7 of the March/April 2020 edition,…
Keep readingTestimony on Kansas FOIA Law Changes
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, we were asked to provide oral and written testimony on the Maryland Open Data Bill (SB644). The data SpotCrime collects…
Keep readingWithout a trace: How a misfired Florida law makes crimes disappear
This blog post appeared as a guest column on the blog of The Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida. Florida’s Chapter 119, the Public Records Act, is seen as one of the strongest transparency laws in the country when it comes to accessing public crime information. Chapter 119 has allowed websites and media outlets, like SpotCrime, to collect public crime data, geolocate it, and disseminate it as quickly…
Keep readingSpotCrime’s Mission to Democratize Crime Data
In addition to working to become one of the largest crime mapping and alert systems in the world, we also advocate for open, equal, and fair access to crime data. We’ve interacted with thousands of police agencies over the past 10+ years which has given us incredible insight into different ways police departments allow access to public crime information. In our attempt to collect data en masse, we strive to make…
Keep readingLocation Information is Imperative for Effective and Informative Policing
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 our SpotCrime Open Crime Data Standard (SOCS). This level of location information helps plot a crime as…
Keep readingOpen Data Resources
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…
Keep readingSpotCrime Testimony from MD Open Data Bill SB644
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 readable and released to the public in ways that make the data easy to find, accessible, and…
Keep readingThe SpotCrime Open Crime Standard (SOCS)
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 than LA who shares it differently than Vancouver, BC who shares it differently than London, England. Until…
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Brittany Suszan 