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Overview
John and Jane Q. Public no longer need to wonder if their neighborhood is safe. Simply by
clicking on CrimeReports.com and typing in a location, citizens can look at a Google Map
that pinpoints exactly where police have responded to crimes within their neighborhoods.
CrimeReports.com is a website that provides tools to help law enforcement agencies
communicate directly with members of the communities they serve using high impact
Google Maps and automated alerts. The service was developed by Public Engines, a
software developer based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The CrimeReports.com service was
initially tested by the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC in March 2007,
Challenge
Previously, law enforcement agencies had to rely heavily on the media to disseminate
information about public safety in their communities – trusting that journalists and
editors conveyed the facts accurately and provided helpful, timely information to keep
citizens apprised of neighborhood crime activity. Police departments had no timely and
cost-efficient way to communicate crime details directly to the public, nor did the public
have ready access to first-hand information.
Enter an innovative group of developers called Public Engines, whose name is inspired by
their core mission to give public officials control of communications directly with citizens
in order to provide citizens more visibility into the inner workings of law enforcement and
government. "We develop simple, powerful, easy-to-use tools that optimize communication
between public officials and the citizens they serve," says CEO Greg Whisenant. "We see
Google Maps for Enterprise as a great way to provide a type of software as a service free
to the public and at very low cost to budget-conscious public agencies." According to
Whisenant, until CrimeReports.com, the only way law enforcement agencies could provide
web-based public information was to build the service themselves or outsource to expensive
service providers, both of which are too costly or time-consuming for most U.S. law
enforcement agencies. "The Google Maps for Enterprise API has enabled us to cut out the
middle man and save years of development time," he says.
"We see Google Maps for Enterprise as a great way to
provide a type of software as a service free to the public and
at very low cost to budget-conscious public agencies."
Solution
Crime data from participating local law enforcement agencies is fed into the Google
Maps API in near real-time, giving members of the public instant insight into theft,
burglary, auto theft, assault and other crime incident locations – viewable by street,
satellite, or hybrid view. The CrimeReports.com service can be integrated with any law
enforcement records management or computer aided dispatch system, and invokes
multiple technologies to deliver its service, including Google Maps for Enterprise and the
Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM).
"We're giving citizens information in ways that are relevant to enhancing public safety,"
says Public Engines COO Christian Faulconer. "For example, if there is a pattern of
thefts in a neighborhood skewed toward a senior population, citizens can be alerted to
take extra precaution and police can bolster patrols in that area."
Results
The San Jose Police Department (SJPD) in northern California was one of the first local
law enforcement agencies to integrate CrimeReports.com into its website, www.sjpd.org.
In addition to the community having direct access to crime data, the police force is
putting the tool to good use internally. SJPD Chief Administrative Officer Steven DiNoto
reports that the force uses the tool to keep a pulse on crime and disorder activity in
its jurisdiction and to deploy officers where they are most needed. "In a single glance,
officers know exactly what has happened during previous shifts, both citywide and in
smaller patrol service areas," says DiNoto. "Also, it's been really rewarding to get so
much positive feedback from the community in terms of members of the public and
law officers working from the same page." He adds that the tool provides a worthwhile
service that is being continually improved upon.
Visualizing crime data in near real-time in the familiar Google Maps interface enables
law enforcement agencies to analyze incident patterns to plan resource deployment
more effectively. In addition, detailed, comprehensive crime and disorder information
is accurately relayed from public agencies to members of the public in near real-time
without waiting for the eleven o'clock news. "Google Maps has changed the way public
agencies can do business – helping provide better citizen services in cost effective
ways," says Faulconer.
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