Here’s the question. You’re being relocated. You’re moving to a state where you have no friends and family to guide where you should live. It’s Florida, so at least it’s warm. So how do you know which neighborhoods are better than others.
Realtors won’t be able to tell you much since their hands are tied with threats of discrimination. So realtor input is iffy at best. School Data is good, but that only tells you about key educational indicators. Sure the pedophile list is important. But what about crime data?
So you start on the internet. Great. Look at Zillow, Trulia, Realtor, and every other website you can to do your research. We were surprised to learn that Trulia, a more real estate based service actually started a crime layer back in 2011. The challenge will be in the ability to filter out “noise crime data”e.g. parking violations, traffic stops etc, and perhaps have categories such as “violent crimes” such as rape, shootings, assaults, , or murder.
A TV show once mentioned why GPS’s don’t allow you to see crime data so you know if you’re driving thru a tough neighborhood. Geeze that’d be a differentiator! Unbiased, pure data, pure public data for that allows you to decide what to do.
Need Your Help – Call to Action
Take a look at the services and apps that are available today. If at the end you agree that companies like Google (Maps) and Waze (Directions) should include a “layer” that allows you to add crime stats to your maps and directions, we urge you to reach out to those companies and tell them. Each link above goes to their respective idea pages where you can add your comments.
UPDATE:
June 18,2016 – CBS Reports that Waze IS planning to release a “SAFETY” layer to it’s app! YEA!
What’s Out There Today
The Sunlight Foundation reported that the most critical aspect for creating usable information is consistent data.
“Mandate open formats, require public information to be posted online, remove restrictions for access, and remove restrictions on reuse of information — Crime data would benefit from being made more technically open. That means municipalities should explore opportunities to share the data online in formats that are non-proprietary, searchable, sortable, and machine-readable, and without restrictions for accessing and reusing that information. Without following these basic tenants, the data remains locked up in inaccessible formats or restrictive licenses that not only prevent the public from accessing the information on their own, but could cause problems for governments needing to share or analyze data that spans multiple jurisdictions or departments, as well.”
Trulia Crime Maps Has Crime Data
Starting back around 2011 Trulia started adding a crime layer to their city maps. Gathering data from multiple crime data sources. So to illustrate where these violent crimes happen, Trulia added a new mode on our Crime Maps which allows you to view the ratio of violent-to-nonviolent crimes. Trulias states, “Here, we count crimes such as shootings and assaults as “violent” while petty crimes such as vandalism or theft are “nonviolent.” – See more
TRULIA LAUNCHES CRIME MAPS TO ADD INSIGHTS AND MORE COMPLETE DATA TO AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOODS
Crime Maps Launch Provides Data on Neighborhoods Block-by-Block and adds Social Commenting to Aid Buying and Renting Decisions
SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2011 – Trulia, a top resource for homebuyers, sellers and renters, today expanded its product suite with the launch of Crime Maps, a innovative and proprietary social crime mapping technology that allows consumers to view, explore, compare, interact and comment on crime data across the US. With Crime Maps, Trulia gives consumers hyper-local visibility into the good, bad and ugly dynamics of neighborhoods, enabling them to make better decisions about where to buy or rent a home.
Sex Offender Data Mashes
Family Watchdog provides a small slice of important data – “Family Watchdog is a free service to help locate registered sex offenders in your area. They encourage you to use our site to help educate your family on possible dangers in areas they visit. Also, please sign up for our free notifications to keep update with offenders that move in/out of your area.
Also check out Radaris, a Sex Offender downloadable app.
Oakland Team Hits the Mark
A webpage called Oakland Crimespotting looked to take a shot at a visual representation and closely resembles the type of mash up we’re talking about. Download the app and give it a spin.
Downloading this FREE application will give you access to the following features:
- Map out crime activity near your current location
- Investigate crimes occurring near your home, work or school address
- Identify any crime by type, time or date of occurrence
- Filter your search for specific crime types such as burglary or assault
Sites that Offer Mashed Crime Data Now
Crime Maps by Trulia- Starting back around 2011 Trulia started adding a crime layer to their city maps. Gathering data from multiple crime data sources.
Crime Reports – In April 2015 Crime Reports was bought by Motorola Solutions. But the site is still offers the ability to enter town or address and get information.
Great site for mapping info by neighborhood. Click Here.
Spot Crime App – SpotCrime, the most visited crime map in the US, is now providing an app for Android devices at the Google Play Store to help keep you and your family aware of the crime in your neighborhood and when you are traveling.
Crime Citizen gives you real-time access to neighborhood level crime and sex offender information. The CrimeReports app is your window into the largest crime mapping and sex offender website in the world. The CrimeReports app gives you access to official crime information for over 1200 participating law enforcement agencies across North America and sex offender data for all 50 US states. As a bonus, if your local police agency is participating, you can sign up for free, automated email crime updates directly from your Android device.
If you have something to share or are developing any crime related apps, drop us a note.
