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(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick

Mon, Nov 24th 2003 8:17am





Mapquest For Crime

from the putting-the-data-online dept

San Francisco is apparently catching up and leaping over other cities with their new mapping software that tracks the location of various crimes. They're also planning to put the system online so that everyone can use it to see what criminal activity is happening in their neighborhood. They're still debating how much information to show, but since much of it is public information already they'll probably reveal quite a bit. The system will let users "slice and dice" the data so they can view very specific areas and focus on certain types of crime. The article mentions that such information can be quite useful in solving certain crimes, but that many police officers don't use it - since they're so busy with other things. It will be interesting to see if having such information public leads to more cases of private citizens solving certain crimes (or at least coming up with the leads police need).

5 Comments | Leave a Comment

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  1.  
    identicon
    Oliver Wendell Jones, Nov 24th, 2003 @ 9:42am

    This internet thing is great!

    Hmm...

    Let's see now, do a search with the following criteria "DVD +5.1 +big-screen +"no alarm" and click "Search"...

    ...

    Woohoo! A whole list of potential new targets!

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    Chris, Nov 24th, 2003 @ 11:10am

    No Subject Given

    Actually Oliver, you would want to search on HDTV to maximize your ROI on late night foraging activities :)

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    Bjorn Freeman-Benson, Nov 24th, 2003 @ 9:58pm

    Portland Oregon has had this and more for years

    See http://www.portlandmaps.com/.
    For example, try "NW Johnson and NW 20th" and click on "Crime".

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Nov 25th, 2003 @ 8:16am

    Re: Portland Oregon has had this and more for year

    sw oak and 3rd seems to like a more interesting place to live.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    identicon
    Mark, Nov 25th, 2003 @ 9:18am

    Crime maps

    I look forward to the first Hollywood or print mystery in which a community's public crime map is used to launch the career of an amateur sleuth. The Miss Marple of today is a tech-savvy senior citizen, surfing the web and fighting crime!

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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