Latest crime data from: Jul 21, 2008
You may have noticed that the surrounding counties are suprisingly crime-free! That's because right now, RichmondCrime.org does not include any areas other than Richmond City proper. As to when we will add these other counties — while we think this would be a great feature, we currently don't have any short term plans to do so. There are a variety of reasons for this, most notable of which (besides lack of free time) is the availablity of the data from the Police Departments themselves. The Richmond City Police Department is kind and tech-savvy enough to allow us to download their crime data relatively easily. Different counties have different formats, and some don't make this data available electronically at all. So, to make a long story short, keep hope alive, but don't expect it any time in the very near future.
RichmondCrime.org is an independent website created by a group of Richmonders. Inspired largely by the trailblazing ChicagoCrime.org, RichmondCrime.org takes the publicly available Richmond Police Department crime data and plots it on maps of the Richmond area, using the (also) publicly available Google Maps software. This allows us to create a visual representation of data that previously was a bit difficult to understand and acceess.
A couple of different reasons. One, because it is (usually) fun and interesting. Two, as a sort of service to the community; hopefully by better understanding the crime happening in our city, we can work to do something about it. Three, well, why not?
The Richmond Police Department makes its crime data available to the public on its website. You (yes, you!) can go there, request data from certain dates, and download huge lists of crimes, including the type of offense, the date, and the address. We take this data, convert the street address into latitude / longitude coordinates using a "geocoder," and put it into our database. Then using Google Maps we can plot the crimes on the map in various different ways, such as by date, by nearest address, and by neighborhood. All we are doing is rearranging information that is already available to everybody.
No, it isn't. In fact, we are not associated in any way with the Richmond Police Department, except insofar as paying our taxes and speeding tickets, and thanking them for their hard work. This may be a perfect time to point to our disclaimer. As to who we are, we are just regular guys, some of whom compose the excellent web design company PharrOut.
That's not a question, but please email it to suggestions@richmondcrime.org.
That's also not a question, but please email it to info@richmondcrime.org.
info@richmondcrime.org. We love fan mail, and we also love hate mail. Both encourage us to do better. Thanks!