From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:
Residents of Richmond, Virginia, have immediate access -- via their personal computers -- to two remarkable sources of information:
- RichmondCrime: a crime information resource that allows anyone to see the location of crime reports and learn the nature of the crime.
- Vacant Richmond, which allows anyone to see the location of vacant properties and find out who owns them.
What's perhaps most amazing is that this resource was developed by concerned citizens, not by city government or a large organization.
Above map is posted on the Oregon Hill web site -- Oregon Hill is one of Richmond's neighborhoods; when you go to their site and click on one of the "flags," the nature of the crime is indicated; you can also choose whatever time frame you want for viewing crime reports. And, you can zoom in or out.
Ross Catrow, who helped put together RichmondCrime and Vacant Richmond, is co-owner of PharrOut, a Richmond-based web design and development company. Why put together this information, I asked? Catrow's reply: "We love Richmond, so projects like RichmondCrime are exciting for us." Catrow's interest grew out of his seeing what he believes was the first web site of this kind: ChicagoCrime.org.
How's it done? One key is that Richmond City has freely available crime incident reporting data. This