From the Los Angeles Times
Times launching database that maps, analyzes crime reports across L.A. County
By Joel Rubin
For car thieves working the streets of Los Angeles County, few stretches of pavement are more attractive than the two blocks of Alondra Boulevard that run from the 605 Freeway to Studebaker Road. At least 20 vehicles were stolen there in a recent six-month period.Across town, a block of Wilcox Avenue just north of Hollywood Boulevard has been the scene of more than a dozen burglaries. And the Mid-Wilshire neighborhood, which typically sees three violent crimes a week, had a recent spike of nine assaults and robberies.
These crime hot spots were culled from a new database and crime-mapping program built by the Los Angeles Times that contains information on all serious crimes recorded by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles county Sheriff's Department, the two agencies that patrol the vast majority of the county....
The Sheriff's Department posts crime data on its website, where anyone can access it. The LAPD, on the other hand, put its crime data on a website that requires a password to gain entry. Senior LAPD officials have yet to decide whether they will follow the sheriff's lead or grant access on a case-by-case basis.
Joseph Hall, a researcher in information technology at Princeton University and [the School of Information at] UC Berkeley, called on the LAPD and Sheriff's Department to enact rules that would cement the release of crime data — even after Beck and Baca depart.
"The word 'transparency' can be a trendy one that officials toss quickly over the wall for political gain," he said. "But are these departments thinking about how to sustain the release of data? Is there a plan for supporting this into the future?"