About
CitizenCrimeWatch.org is a proof of concept Web site. The goal is to create an open source crime mapping, reporting, and alert system for the community, so that citizens might have a greater awareness about the safety of their neighborhoods. Any neighborhood organization which wishes to use this system may host it on their own Web site, or on a Web site hosted for them.
In concert with the New Orleans community, a team of volunteers is now working on more fully developing this site into an even more feature-rich and meaningful tool for understanding crime trends, but they can’t do it alone. For this concept to work, citizens will need to assert their ownership of timely, accurate data from the New Orleans Police Department.
There are other data sources, such as “scraping” the data from NOLA.com incident report pages. The problem with these other sources is that they are incomplete and irregularly published — if published at all. In coming days and weeks, this site will be populated with real crime data from these second-hand sources, and additional features will be designed to make it easier to differentiate crime patterns by signal, date, and neighborhood. Longer-term, an alert system will be built to notify citizens when user-defined thresholds are met.
None of these goals will be realized without the cooperation of city public officials. Please make clear to the NOPD, the mayor, and City Council, that you want to know what crimes are occurring in your neighborhood in a timely manner — not days or weeks after criminals move into your neighborhood. Tell them that access to raw data for citizens to develop and tailor their own mapping and reporting capabilities is completely consistent with community policing goals because it empowers citizens to own the problems which appear in their neighborhoods, and builds confidence between citizens and the police.
Moreover, the success of this citizen-led initiative is strengthened through patient, steady dialog among citizens to ensure that common goals are being met. Please feel free to provide feedback to make sure that your good ideas and concerns are being incorporated in this project as it moves forward. We are stronger when we work together.
The goal is greater transparency. The objective tool for achieving that transparency is the same data the NOPD gets, at the same time they get it, because in the end, information saves lives!
To find out how you can support this initiative, send an email to citizencrimewatch@gmail.com.
