WASHINGTON — There’s a new way to look at crime in D.C., as the District rolls out a new technology that visualizes its crime data by location.
In an effort to increase transparency and improve crime reporting, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the city’s new “crime cards” technology, a project three years in the making.
“It is a mobile, modern and interactive version of the D.C. Crime Map,” she said.
Working with the previous eight years of crime data (as well as sworn officers), the Police Department collaborated with developers so residents can search the map by location and type of crime, and can use it as a tool to learn about their neighborhood, Chief Peter Newsham said.
“The charts, graphs and maps are generated as individual cards that can fit any-size-screen phone, tablet or desktop,” he said.
The layered, open-sourced data was also developed in part by citizens who took part in the city’s 2017 Hackathon.
The interactive, downloadable data is particularly helpful, for instance, for someone looking for what neighborhood they want to live in. It’s an upgrade over the city’s crime tracker that was established in 2006. However, that resource will remain in place for those who prefer to use it, Newsham said.
Developers said that crime will be updated into the tracking system the next business day, allowing for law enforcement briefings following the event.
