SOURCES: CRIME STATS FOR YOUR LOCAL AREA / Update 2 / (5/24/14)

Posted:  17 May 14
Reissued:  23 May 14
Update #2:  24 May 14 (additions to accumulated data sources)

REISSUE OF BULLETIN

This bulletin supersedes (or supplements) 

the original bulletins, submerged below this one

1.  Purposes of this Re-issued Bulletin

• To report that the SpotCrime.com site will REGULARLY receive data from the Pittsburg Police Department and will present it on the site, as received. So residents might do well to adopt a regular site-visit routine
• To provide some reassuring information about the website, itself -- and how it handles the data.
• To provide a random accumulation of additional relevant data sources

Here is the link:  SPOTCRIME.COM

REMEMBER == This Website is NATIONAL In Scope!

2.  Discussion

a.  This afternoon, I received a phone call from Mr. Colin Drane, the site's founder, informing me that he talked with the Chief of Police for Pittsburg, Chief Addington.  He was delighted to say that the Chief has promptly arranged to send updates to SpotCrime, every week. And the Pittsburg data has been updated, ALREADY! (just visit the site).  The Chief deserves our thanks for this excellent support.

b.  Mr. Drane has done us a great service.  His careful follow-up has enabled the Chief to easily pass the information forward and has given us an easy way to get at it. I've had the privilege of talking, at length, with Colin and have come to appreciate his sincere and firm desire to help make this a better world -- and he's succeeding, brilliantly.  His friendliness, reliability, and unbelievably prompt and in-depth responsiveness -- plus the quality of his website -- literally blows my mind.  A wonderful resource has just fallen into our lap.

c.  Finally, Colin advises that the data does report "initial calls."  Therefore, a "911" call for, say, "gunshots heard," which turns out to have been a backfiring car -- is still reported in the data.  So, I think that suggests that we should allow for a bit of inflation.

3.  Other New information in this re-issue.  

I retained the earlier bulletin and updates, below this reissue, for historical purposes. I'm still figuring out the best way to administer the blog and I think this will do, for now.  

In addition, I include the following accumulation of relevant resources, to assist you and as an aid in related Civic Mentor system-building activities.

MISCELLANEOUS DATA SOURCES

(in random order -- new additions on top of this list)

Crime Reports:  Google search

Crime Reports:  https://www.crimereports.com/ (similar to SpotCrime.com)

FBI Sex Offender Registry (all States):  https://www.crimereports.com/

SpotCrime:  http://spotcrime.com/

Department of Justice: www.usdoj.gov

Bureau of Justice Statistics: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs

F.B.I.: www.fbi.gov

C.I.A.: https://www.cia.gov/index.html

National Institute of Justice: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/

Federal Bureau of Prisons: www.bop.gov

U.S. Marshals Service: www.usdoj.gov/marshals/

National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund: www.1nleomf.com

Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT):  http://www.great-online.org/

Partnership Against Violence Network (PAVNET): www.pavnet.org/

National Organization for Victim Assistance: http://www.try-nova.org/

National Center for Victims of Crime: http://www.ncvc.org/

F.B.I. Ten Most Wanted: www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/fugitives.htm

America's Most Wanted Criminals: www.fugitivehunter.org/usmostwanted.html

Fugitives & Missing Persons (at DOJ): http://www.usdoj.gov/09fugitives/index.html

David Nelson

=========================================

EARLIER SUPERSEDED BULLETIN AND UPDATES

UPDATE #2:  19 May 14

Received first email alert, for Pittsburg,CA.  It does contain crime data for Pittsburg.  Sign-up for the free alerts.

UPDATE #1:  18 May 14

As promised, I contacted the hard-working producers of the below website and received an immediate response.  My questions concerned the lack of information for Pittsburg, CA.  The amazingly prompt answer (at the bottom of this bulletin) is very helpful, locally, and probably, for the rest of the nation encountering the same issues.

******

Original Bulletin

Purpose

To inform readers of an easy way to get crime statistics for their specific locality, nationwide. (Still evaluating the site.)

Here is the link:  SPOTCRIME.COM

Discussion

I discovered this site, this morning.  I looked up data for my home area.  That produced an unexpected result.  Instead of telling me what I wanted, it told me about the next adjacent city.

I also noted that the statistics don't seem to be in real time -- it gave me reports as of 5/11/14.  Just saying ... since it would be unreasonable to expect real-time information.

In fairness, it may be that no one has reported to them for Pittsburg -- and they were just giving me the closest thing they had.   It may be that it is fed its data from local voluntary reports. (?)  I have written to them, to open a discussion, and will adjust this bulletin, accordingly.

That being said, it does give a sense of the surroundings.  As I develop the subsystems related to this topic, I will give you a comprehensive collection of sites and, hopefully, an analysis of their relative quality.

I did sign up for their email alert service.

I also checked --  AND THEY SEEM TO BE A NATIONAL SERVICE (all the States are there, but I didn't open each one to check, explicitly) -- up on the left-hand end of the maroon-colored horizontal menu bar is a button "Browse crime by state."

Please advise us (in the comment space, below) if you experience more interesting things about the site.


David Nelson

Spotcrime.com's 5/17/14 Answer to my Inquiry

David,

Thanks for your email and your call.

We reached out to the Pittsburg CA police back in 2009.  I see that the chief responded to our correspondence, but I don't see a response to our request for information.  It may have been a lack of follow up on our part.

From a quick view of the police website, it does not look like the data is published in an open format.   I do see that the paper is getting some blotter information.  We will reach out to the police department next week and ask for similar information, and hopefully start mapping the data shortly thereafter.

Please reach out to your department and ask them to share crime data with us.  We map for free.  We are the most visited crime mapping website in the US and have apps for both Android and the iPhone.

Requests from local citizens can be helpful.

Sincerely,

Colin Drane

Founder 

SpotCrime.com

877.410.1607

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