SpotCrime.com

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SpotCrime.com
Web address SpotCrime.com
Commercial? Yes
Type of site Web crime mapping
Owner ReportSee, Inc.
Launched 2007
Alexa rank negative increase 60,212 (December 2013)[1]

SpotCrime.com is a Baltimore-based company founded in October 2007 and privately owned by ReportSee, Inc. It provides nationwide crime information about arrests, arsons, assaults, burglaries, robberies, shootings, thefts and vandalisms, on a Google map.

The crime data is mainly from police departments, news reports and user-generated content. Anyone can access these maps and have the option to sign up to receive free crime alerts via email and text (SMS).[2] The email alert includes a map and crime details that has occurred in the specified area. In 2012, SpotCrime.com launched its own crime tip service, Crimetip.us, allowing users to anonymously report crimes in their area.

SpotCrime.com is a part of the Emerging Technology Center (ETC) in Baltimore.

According to Compete.com, SpotCrime.com has twice as many visitors to its website than any other crime mapping company.[3]

According to the site's Facebook page, on November 20, 2012 the site sent over 200,000 crime email alerts to users in one day.[4]

SpotCrime.com was included in a research paper funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared by SCRA titled 'Survey and Evaluation of Online Crime Mapping'.[5]

Availability in other applications

SpotCrime.com powers a 'sister' site - MyLocalCrime.com, and a full-screen version of SpotCrime - SpotCrime.info. MyLocalCrime displays the same data as SpotCrime, only in a different format. SpotCrime.info is easily viewable on a mobile browser. ReportSee, Inc. (SpotCrime) is also in charge of UCrime.com, a University crime mapping website.[6][7][8]

iGoogle Gadget, iPhone[9] in 2009, Android, Layar[10][11] in 2010 and DirecTV[12]

Coverage area

Currently mapping data in over 500 cities in the US., 10 in Canada, and London (UK). SpotCrime will map data for any police agency who supplies open and unrestricted access to crime data.

At the beginning of 2012, SpotCrime made its historical crime database available to anyone who asks, free of charge by using Amazon's S3 technology. 'The data set is approximately one gigabyte of data. Data includes the type of crime, location including latitude and longitude coordinates, date, time, description, and referral source for the data.'[13]

Competition

Competitors include:

  • Crimedar.com
  • CrimeReports.com
  • Crimemapping.com
  • EveryBlock.com
  • MapNimbus.com
  • MyNeighborhoodUpdate.net
  • RAIDSOnline.com

Lawsuit

On April 9, 2010, Public Engines, Inc. (CrimeReports.com) filed a lawsuit against ReportSee, Inc. (SpotCrime) for violating the Terms of Use on the CrimeReports website.[14]

SpotCrime's Role In Dispute Of Private Outsourcing Of Public Data

According to The Poynter Institute, SpotCrime's founder, Colin Drane, was sued by Public Engines, a competitor. Public Engine's CEO acknowledges that the data he uses is public, but contends that it's up to the police agencies to make the data public. Poynter also acknowledges that some police agencies, who have already partnered with other crime-mapping sites, are using existing agreements to “control” access to crime data. This raises concerns over the ability of journalists to transparently receive data from police departments, and the questions of exactly who constitutes “media” in a time of technological change.[15]

See also

  • Trulia, US real estate website with crime maps.

General:

References

  1. ↑ "Spotcrime.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2013-12-01. 
  2. ↑ SpotCrime Informs of Neighborhood Crimes
  3. ↑ https://siteanalytics.compete.com/freelogin/?site=spotcrime.com
  4. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/crimemap
  5. ↑ https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/239908.pdf
  6. ↑ http://www.mylocalcrime.com/about
  7. ↑ http://www.spotcrime.info/
  8. ↑ http://ucrime.com/
  9. ↑ SpotCrime Application Now Available on iPhone for New York City Residents
  10. ↑ U.S. Open Golf Championship, iheart radio among this week’s free apps
  11. ↑ Layar of the week: Avoid criminal areas with the SpotCrime layar
  12. ↑ SpotCrime.com, DirecTV brings crime data to satellite TV customers
  13. ↑ http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120111005878/en/SpotCrime-Database-15-Million-Crime-Records-Public SpotCrime Makes Database of 15 Million Crime Records Available to the Public
  14. ↑ Who Owns Public Crime Data?
  15. ↑ The Poynter Institue, "Disputes over crime maps highlight challenge of outsourcing public data"

External links

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