Minneapolis and St. Paul crime data

At the local Transparency and Participation Meetup on March 30, 2010, direct access to real-time crime data stood out as a common priority. In attendance were people involved with efforts to help victims of sexual assault, engage immigrant communities, share news via neighborhood blogs and forums, build community through neighborhood associations, and open government via legislation at the State Capitol.

Examples From Other Communities

• Blaine, and Fridley, Minnesota - Direct access provided by open source GeoMoose tool as featured in this article.
• Hopkins and four other Minnesota Cities - Access via CrimeReports.com
• Seattle CIO's blog on crime data etc.
• Washington DC They produce their own crime-map from real-time data from their full data catalog. The District's open data approach has enabled third parties to produce sites like SpotCrime DC, the AreYouSafeDC iPhone App, and more.
• Portland, Oregon - Includes CrimeMapper, daily 911 Calls, and more.
• Oakland, CA - Has independent Crimespotting, the city's official Crimewatch, and SpotCrime.
• Please add more example ...

Minneapolis - Current Data Sources, Description, How to Access Currently

• Minneapolis Police Department - Currently provides an array of mostly "human mediated" information services including the very popular e-mail lists (according to GovDelivery all 80 "alert" services (non-crime included) have 40,000 subscribers) for crime bulletins from community policing specialists by sectors/precincts (no web archive of alerts is known), crime statistics, occasional major crime alerts on the web, Weekly Highlights, Monthly crime stats by city neighborhood, Weekly Crime and Arrest Statistics, Weekly Crime Maps by Precinct and mostly department PR via the Nixle service. This collective and complex set of options seems to indicate a strong interest in sharing information, but through intermediaries more so than the national trend to adopt open data approaches.

• Surprise! Minneapolis on SpotCrime - In the process of compiling examples above, we discovered unknown to pretty much everyone, that SpotCrime somehow has access to some of the data we want open for all for a number of Minnesota cities including St. Paul. There is also a U of M Minneapolis campus crime map. NOTE: There appear to be some MAJOR inconsistencies in what is shared for Minneapolis - like no assault data for S. Minneapolis in Feb. and Mar. while it does display if you back up to January. Very odd.

What is missing from this list?

• 911 Calls
  • Database Name:
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• Incident Reports
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• Arrests
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• Charges/Bookings
  • Database Name:
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• Community Impact Statements
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• Trial Information
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• Convictions
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• Parolees in Community
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• Sex Offenders in Community
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• Crime Statistics/Trends - Reported, solved, unsolved, etc.
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St. Paul - Current Data Sources, Description, How to Access Currently

• St. Paul Police Department - Provides crime statistics including weekly reports to to district councils, Nixle for some e-mail alerts, a Facebook Fan Page, and via the city's comprehensive E-Subscriptions service they have some alert options (it is not clear how they are different than the Nixle service nor do they appear to have automated e-mail lists used by community police specials like in Minneapolis.)

• Surprise! - St. Paul on SpotCrime - In the process of compiling examples above, we discovered unknown to pretty much everyone, that SpotCrime somehow has access to some of the data we want open for all for a number of Minnesota cities including Minneapolis.

What is missing from this list?

• 911 Calls
  • Database Name:
  • Description:
  • Current Access:

• Incident Reports
  • Database Name:
  • Description:
  • Current Access:

• Arrests
  • Database Name:
  • Description:
  • Current Access:

• Charges/Bookings
  • Database Name:
  • Description:
  • Current Access:

• Community Impact Statements
  • Database Name:
  • Description:
  • Current Access:

• Trial Information
  • Database Name:
  • Description:
  • Current Access:

• Convictions
  • Database Name:
  • Description:
  • Current Access:

• Parolees in Community
  • Database Name:
  • Description:
  • Current Access:

• Sex Offenders in Community
  • Database Name:
  • Description:
  • Current Access:

• Crime Statistics/Trends - Reported, solved, unsolved, etc.
  • Database Name:
  • Description:
  • Current Access:

Notes

As more of us become aware of the direct, real-time crime and justice data and information promoting public safety available other communities, momentum will build for such services in our communities. It is important to point out that while helpful, monthly crime maps designed for print use, is not real-time data access. Real-time implies direct online access to the legally public information about what happened as soon as anyone else outside the police department or courts could gain access to that information through any channel. (If a television station can get the file, photo, form, etc. then so should everyone.)