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With the news that the Winter Garden Police Department has released its own interactive crime map, Florida’s WKMG (channel 6) website has compiled a list of the police departments and sheriff’s offices that have adopted crime mapping as an effective way to communicate local crime information to the public.(Click here to see the list)
Currently 22 Florida law enforcement agencies publish their crime data through CrimeReports, including St. Petersburg, Daytona Beach, Atlantic Beach, and Fort Myers, with more joining in the next few weeks.
The WKMG list is not comprehensive, but it does give a good picture of the way that Florida is quickly adopting crime mapping statewide. If you live in Florida or are interested in various crime mapping interfaces, check out the list or go to CrimeReports.com and click on Florida.
Get on the crime map at CrimeReports.com
According to the Daily Express, a brand new national crime map covering England and Wales launched today. The new website, http://maps.police.uk/, covers all streets in England and Wales, replacing an existing system of individually maintained crime mapping websites by local police agencies. Any citizen can go to the website and search for crime information in their neighborhood.
The new system has experienced a few problems, though. According to the Daily Express, citizens in London, Manchester, and Yorkshire were unable to access the map on its first day up. The home office is working on the problem and hopes that the entire map will be accessible to all citizens as soon as the problem is fixed.
Get on the crime map at CrimeReports.com
Jeffery Dahmer
Although the bulk of this presentation consisted of the two presenters, PIOs in large cities, telling stories about serial killers, there were some great nuggets that could be culled from the presentation as a whole. Here are some helpful messages for law enforcement public information officers not only for serial killer coverage, but for public relations in general.
Go out early, control the message—If you are the first to break the story to the media (instead of the media breaking it for you) you can control the message. Once the media breaks a story for you, you have to play catch up, and you have lost control of your message.
If you’re explaining, you’re losing—If you find yourself having to explain your department’s actions and decisions on a case, you’ve lost control of your message. Again, make sure you are in front of the story so you don’t end up having to explain after the fact.
Provide visuals—if you give the media the visuals, you are controlling the message.
Dig up your own dirt before someone else digs it up for you—when you are about to go public with a story like this, make sure you know about all previous contacts the killer has had with law enforcement and why the killer was not caught sooner. Make sure to answer those questions yourself before someone else does.
Beware of the blame game—in an investigation like this, the media may want to blame law enforcement for not catching the killer sooner, mishandling the investigation, and more. Make sure you don’t play that game. Don’t start pointing fingers within your department or at the media.
One other lesson that was reiterated throughout the presentation was the importance of communicating with victim’s families before the media does. Not only does this make your department look good when reporters are not the first people to contact victim’s families, but it gives victims families hope that their loved one’s killer will be caught and creates good will with them to continue working with your department throughout the investigation.
Panelists:
Mary Grady, Public Information Director II, Los Angeles PD
Anne Schwartz, Communication Director, Milwaukee PD
Get on the crime map at CrimeReports.com
I just saw that Stockholm, Sweden, now has a crime map. (Of course, the website is in Swedish, but that’s what Google Translator is for.) The site only lists 99 crimes for the last 2 months, but I imagine that if the map grows in popularity and local law enforcement sees the benefits of a public crime map, more and more information will appear.
Right now, the map is just a basic Google Map with only one marker type, and it’s not searchable, or filterable. But you can click a marker to find out more details about an incident; however, if you don’t speak Swedish, you might have to take your laptop to IKEA and see if you can get some help.
Check out the map here: http://eskapism.se/stockholmcrimemap/
Get on the crime map at CrimeReports.com
Over the weekend, QuieroPaz.org launched its Venezuelan crime map. I have argued in the past that implementation of crime mapping in third-world countries could help cut crime by giving the people access to crime information, and I think this is a step in the right direction.
Unless you speak Spanish, the site may be a bit hard to understand, but it does offer the benefit of linking individual crimes to stories in the media about those crimes. I’m not sure whether the crimes on the map come directly from local law enforcement or whether the map is made of data culled from media sources. However, from the prevalence of homicides over any other crimes (by a wide margin), I’m guessing that the site mostly collects data from media sources and does not display crime data directly from local law enforcement.
Still, this map is a start, and hopefully it will help local citizens and law enforcement track and stay informed about crime in their area so that they can keep themselves and their communities safe.
Get on the crime map at CrimeReports.com
In a recent post titled, “Traditional Media Loses Grip on Local Crime Information,” I hypothesized that with the increase in law enforcement agencies providing citizens with direct access to crime data through Facebook, Twitter, CrimeReports, and other web tools the public may not need traditional media as a crime-reporting source anymore.
But I believe that the issue of direct data vs. traditional crime reporting is more complex than my simple conclusion seemed to express. The core of the debate is this:
If I (as a citizen) already have a direct feed of official crime data pertinent to my neighborhood through Twitter, CrimeReports, Facebook, etc., what would make me tune in to the nightly news or read the daily crime blotter in my local newspaper for crime information?
My first response is—nothing.
If I receive daily crime alerts from CrimeReports, and religiously check my local police department’s Facebook page, I would feel relatively informed about the crime situation in my neighborhood. But this does not mean that traditional media does not hold any value.
Context
First of all, print and broadcast media provide context to the data that law enforcement provides to citizens through these new web tools. As a citizen, I can track the handful of crimes that may happen in my neighborhood on a weekly basis, but I don’t know how my neighborhood fits into the bigger picture of crime across the city or the state. Traditional media has the time and resources to do the analysis and paint the bigger picture.
In addition, although many law enforcement agencies provide basic data through crime mapping and social media tools (i.e., Breaking and Entering, 9/5/09, 10:04pm). Traditional media has the ability to elaborate on those incidents (i.e., “Resident called 911 after hearing glass break. Neighbors report seeing a young woman in late teens or early twenties, fleeing the scene through the victim’s backyard,” etc.).
Contrast
Besides providing complex analysis that most citizens cannot or will not do on their own, traditional media can serve as a counter balance to the direct data coming from a law enforcement agency. Granted, most law enforcement agencies are more concerned with informing citizens than they are about providing a positive spin on the information they release, but traditional media can provide a different perspective on crime than one would get from just following the local PD on Twitter. And although newspapers and broadcast news are supported by advertising and have an incentive to increase readership/ratings, the perspective they provide can shed a different light on the data given out by local law enforcement agencies.
The Bigger Picture
Lastly, traditional media can offer a broader picture of crime than basic-level crime information. Although it has been my experience that most people are more directly concerned with crime on their block than they are with crime in the neighboring town, getting a broader picture of crime can also help raise awareness of trends in crime both locally and nationally. And awareness of broader crime trends is, as well, helpful in keeping citizens vigilant and safe.
A Difference in Scale
All-in-all, the main difference between using social media to get crime data and following traditional media for crime information is scale. CrimeReports and other crime mapping resources are very good at giving citizens a picture of crime in their neighborhood. Twitter and Facebook are excellent tools for local law enforcement to use to disseminate information and interact with a city, county, or town. But traditional media is probably the most useful for large-scale crime reporting.
Only one question remains: If citizens have a direct line to crime data on their street, will they still tune in to or read traditional forms of crime reporting to get the bigger picture? Since social media is only being used by a relatively small number of law enforcement agencies currently (although more are joining everyday), it’s too early to predict citizen’s reactions to these new information streams. My only hope is that citizens will access crime information on whatever level they feel comfortable so that they can stay informed and keep their neighborhoods safe through the greater vigilance that comes from increased access to crime information.
[Special thanks to an unnamed journalist for helping me tease out these ideas]
Get on the crime map at CrimeReports.com
Las Vegas, Nevada, has recently experienced a drop in crime, like much of the rest of the country. Some areas around the country attribute the drop in crime to the current state of the economy and others take credit for innovative crime-fighting initiates. But according to a recent story out of Las Vegas, the local police are crediting their drop in crime to the use of new technology, including crime mapping, and changes in their philosophy toward policing.
Has your agency thought about public-facing crime mapping? Get on the crime map at CrimeReports.com
In a story about the Boca Raton, Fla., Police Department’s use of Twitter, Nixle, and other social media to inform the public, Lynn University Professor, Jim Brosemer stated, “The police department has a certain point of view and of course they want to put their best face in front of the public.” Of course, he is insinuating that the police department, through this new technology, is able to bypass traditional media and present their interpretation of crime information directly to the public. Professor Brosemer adds, “That’s not necessarily a good thing.”
But whether or not the Boca Raton Police are “bypassing” traditional media or not, the fact of the matter remains that in the new world of social media, traditional news reporting may have less of an impact on crime information.
Reporting for Ratings
For many years, broadcast and print media were the gatekeepers of crime information. They chose what crimes to emphasize, and what to say about them. They chose which law enforcement issues to highlight and which ones to minimize. Some may say that the news media adage, “if it bleeds, it leads,” although cynical, represents what a number of Americans feel is traditional media’s attitude toward crime reporting. Unfortunately the type of reporting whose goal is sensationalism for the sake of ratings, or increased readership, is all about shock, fear, and criticism, not about a fair-handed and informative look at local crime.
Law Enforcement Talks Directly to the Public
But now that law enforcement has the tools to speak directly to the public, they have the ability to create a broader, more-comprehensive picture of local crime and crime trends. For example, since the Boca Raton Police started using Twitter and Nixle, they have stopped giving press releases to local media in advance. Now they send out press releases via social media and local news learns about them at the same time as all other citizens in the area. Using public-facing crime maps, like partnering with CrimeReports, also gives the public direct access to crime information. Instead of relying on the nightly news to tell citizens that there have a been a rash of break-ins, citizens can now look at the map themselves and determine if it truly is a “rash” or if it is really 4 break-ins in the last month, spread out across three townships.
Obviously, this level of access to crime information has never before been available to the public. The power to interpret crime data has now moved out of the hands of the traditional media gatekeepers and into the hands of citizens themselves. And, perhaps, that IS a good thing.
For more on this topic: Traditional Media Loses Grip on Local Crime Information, Pt. 2
Get on the map at CrimeReports.com
A recent article posted at The Christian Science Monitor, reports that nearly a year after the massive anti-crime protests in Mexico, little has changed to curb crime or to improve relations between citizens and law enforcement. In fact, many residents feel that the crime has gotten worse.
Originally, as a result of the protests, the government promised to “root out corrupt police moonlighting for kidnapping rings, better coordinate police actions, and create more citizen watch groups.” And although the government says it has accomplished its goals, citizens still feel unsafe.
Overcoming a Culture of Not Reporting Crime
The real problem, pointed out by one citizen, is not police corruption itself, but rather Mexico’s culture of not reporting crime. Many citizens do not report crime out of fear of retaliation from criminals, or fear that the police that they report to are corrupt and won’t pay attention anyway. The article points out that as much as 80% of crime goes unreported.
What exists, then, is a massive lack of trust between citizens and law enforcement. This mistrust leads to a culture of fear toward law enforcement. Just like any neighborhood in the United States, if citizens fear the police, they will not work with them to reduce crime—or even report it. The problem of mistrust, then, is the root of the problem.
Quelling Fear Through Anonymity and Technology
Fear and mistrust are bred from secrecy. One of the ways that Mexico can encourage citizens to trust police is to open up crime data to the public. Illuminemos (“Light Up Mexico”), an organization dedicated to reducing crime in Mexico, has reportedly published a crime map to combat the lack of information from police (although, I have not been able to find it). Nevertheless, public-facing crime mapping could prove a useful public relations tool for a government trying to instill its citizens with trust in law enforcement. Pushing actual crime data to a publicly available site not only gives citizens the information they need to track crime and protect themselves, but opening the data up to the public shows that the government trust the public with the information. If the government offers an olive branch, through public-facing crime mapping, they prove that they are not hiding anything and that they are actively seeking citizen participation in reducing crime.
In addition, some citizens do not report crime for fear of retaliation. CiviRep, a pioneering SMS crime reporting system has been deployed in Venezuela (read more about it here). The system allows citizens to use cell phones to anonymously report crime from any location. The crime info is sent to local police who can respond and map crime in real time. A similar system, deployed in Mexico, could help quell the fear of retaliation and increase crime reporting dramatically.
Deployment
Granted, there are some technological issues to overcome in deploying public crime mapping and text message crime reporting. For instance, because addresses in Mexico are not clearly defined or regulated, mapping by address could be a problem, forcing police to map crime by GPS coordinates. In addition, the money may not be available to build or maintain these systems. However, working toward these technological solutions to reduce crime and create openness could provide a positive return on investment for citizens and the Mexican government
UPDATE: The Illuminemos map can be found here: http://www.mapadelincuencial.org.mx/zonas_de_riesgo.php (Thanks to reader lewis shepherd for the tip)
Get on the crime map at CrimeReports.com
Gov Tech just published an interview with California’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Mark Weatherford, in which he elaborated on some of his plans for implementing IT security across the state. In regards to security concerns for government-based social networking, he said the following:
“We’re going to jump out in front of this and get something in place that allows state employees to use social networks. It’s going to be my job to figure out how we can safely and securely implement these technologies in state agencies because in a couple of years we’re not going to have this discussion anymore. This is going to happen. We just need to make sure we’re doing it properly.”
State governments are beginning to realize that social networking is not a fad, but represent a fundamental shift in the way that citizens communicate and interact with their government. Local government and law enforcement need to have a similar attitude: “This is going to happen. We just need to make sure we’re doing it properly.”
Using social media tools like Facebook and Twitter, or Web 2.0 tools like CrimeReports is the first step.
Source: http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/717247?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=link
Get on the crime map at CrimeReports.com
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The Crime Map 