Comments on: Crime data stories

By: Matt McAlister » Interesting perspectives from Web 2.0 Expo

Matt McAlister » Interesting perspectives from Web 2.0 Expo — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:13:21 +0000

[...] The crime data issue is going to be a big deal in the not too distant future, I’m sure. And as Mr. Coates and Mr. Jones noted in their talks on personal data design, it’s the details that really matter in this space. You can think about products and features all day, but the specifics that define how data is shared, how it becomes relevant and how it is presented will make or break the intent of any offering. [...]

By: Matt McAlister » Interactive journalism: An amazing homicide mashup

Matt McAlister » Interactive journalism: An amazing homicide mashup — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:34:42 +0000

[...] Sean and Katy posted recordings of the families talking about the sons, daughters, sisters and brothers that they lost. They integrated family photos, message boards, articles and more along with the interactive homicide map on the site to round out the experience making it much more human than the traditional crime data mashup. [...]

By: Matt McAlister » Blog Archive » Making government more useful through data

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 05:50:29 +0000

[...] explored this a little myself in some investigations of access to crime data [1, 2]. It’s no surprise that Adrian Holovaty of the Chicago Crime mashup fame (and now Every [...]

By: Matt McAlister » Thinking about media as a platform

Matt McAlister » Thinking about media as a platform — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 17:21:06 +0000

[...] For example, I recently spent some time investigating crime data and how that gets shared or not shared in various local communities. Local citizens could provide a very powerful resource if they were empowered to report crime in meaningful ways on the Internet. [...]

By: Greg Whisenant

Greg Whisenant — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 01:00:28 +0000

Matt,

Excellent review and insight. We recently launched a site as a partner with DC Stat (referenced above) for the Metropolitan Police of Washington DC to provide high-impact Google Maps and automated location-based alerts to the community. There are more than 15,000 citizens in the city who receive this information. Here is how one Zip Code in NW presents:

http://www.crimereports.com/map?search=20036

The service is free to members of the community and to the MPDC. We are adding and handful of other departments when the beta is completed in a few weeks. Any department can join, and with the push toward Justice XML, most departments will be able to do it quickly and easily, it not now then in the near future. If, that is, the public demands it.

By: Brian Denzer

Brian Denzer — Sat, 19 May 2007 03:25:31 +0000

Matt, we share a common vision for the future. Governments are becoming the barriers for more creative solutions. They should become enablers of community-driven solutions. We’re seeing that in many more ways than one in New Orleans, where even though the problems of rebuilding the city are enormous, citizens are prepared to do the work, but public officials aren’t willing to unleash their creative ability.

This is a very thoughtful post on “the wisdom of crowds.”

By: Citizen Crime Watch » Blog Archive » The Wisdom of Crowds

Citizen Crime Watch » Blog Archive » The Wisdom of Crowds — Sat, 19 May 2007 03:14:45 +0000

[...] Citizen Crime Watch is far from being alone in seeing the need for citizens to have open access to crime information. A recent post by Matt McAlister makes the case as well as any we have made. Interestingly enough, McAlister finds the same deficiencies with the official police maps and public reporting systems in his community that we have identified with the New Orleans Police Department. I then found the official San Francisco Police Department Crime Map. Of course, the data is wrapped in their own heavy-handed user interface and unavailable in common shareable web data formats. The tool is burdened with legal trappings and strangely fails to acknowledge homicides. … [...]

By: Motivation, context, and citizen analysis of government data « Jon Udell

Motivation, context, and citizen analysis of government data « Jon Udell — Fri, 18 May 2007 15:08:22 +0000

[...] Motivation, context, and citizen analysis of government data Filed under: Uncategorized — Jon Udell @ 10:08 am Matt McAlister heard “crackling firearms” in his San Francisco neighborhood and wrote a wonderful essay on a theme that was central to my keynote talk last week at the GOVIS conference: how citizens can and will work with governments to diagnose social problems and develop solutions. When the District of Columbia’s DCStat program rolled out last summer, I was delighted by the forward thinking involved. Publishing the city’s operational data directly to the web, for everyone to see and analyze, with the explicit goal of making the delivery of government services transparent and accountable, was and is an astonishingly bold move. And as Matt found when investigating crime in his neighborhood, it’s still part of the unevenly distributed future: I then found the official San Francisco Police Department Crime Map. Of course, the data is wrapped in their own heavy-handed user interface and unavailable in common shareable web data formats. [...]