Online Crime Data Website

[Utah_Viper]

This was on the news here:

http://www.crimereports.com/

KSL - http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2577781

Beginning today, 15 law enforcement agencies in Utah will make their crime databases available to you--from rapes to robberies and DUIs to domestic violence. But will you be able to trust the information is accurate?

It's a free service. All you do is type in your address and up pops a map with descriptions of what types of crime happened and when. Advocates say it's a way to keep residents aware of what's going on around them, but critics say law enforcement could downplay the severity of crimes to keep residents calm and voters happy....

 

[gldavis]

I lived, for a while, in a community that that had that problem. Seems the local press started getting copies of the "log sheets" from the dispatcher, and published the highlights in the paper. And the Editor chose what was highlights. The mayor and PD chief was upset about the public discloser of activity, and so they "changed" the way things were being recorded and what was being logged. I found it amazing at the drop of "reported" criminal activity once the new procedures went into effect. I'm pretty sure that most of the changes came from the Mayors office and not the PD. In my experience , MOST Police Officers don't care one way or the other if the public is aware of what is going on. But once you get to the Chief level, it becomes more of Politics, and less of reality. Anyone listening to a scanner soon realizes that there is A LOT more going on than what you see/read in the press. "soapbox off"

 

[qlajlu]

Well said, Gary, well said.