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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Dallas Police Department unveils public access to records

By Pegasus News wire

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Mr. T would've been in trouble hanging around Dallas today.

DALLAS — The Dallas Police Department will hold a press conference at 2:00 p.m. today to announce that any Joe Q. Public can have access to police reports ... provided he or she has access to the internet (which I would hope you do if you're reading this article. If you don't, then please report to the set of Heroes to show off your power).

You can actually access that page right now to find out about such crimes as this guy, who got hit with a beer bottle and had some gold rings and money stolen, and something called a "left side" damaged at 3:15 this morning. Was it the left side of his body? His car? His brain? We may never know, but it's worth $800, so it's got to be something valuable. Apparently gold was on the thievery menu this morning, as this guy had gold chains, gold bracelets, AND gold rings stolen from his place.

You can also use the site for, you know, serious purposes. But where's the fun in that?

Posted by Alex B.

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Rick Yost

Rick Yost Verified

The Dallas Police website has had this link for a while now... http://maps.dallascityhall.com/index.... an interactive 'crime map' of the city, where you can see what types of crimes occur in your neighborhood.

1 year, 8 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Mike Orren

Mike Orren Staff

Yeah, Rick. We've used that one too, but its results aren't as realtime.

I'm thrilled the DPD has done this -- the next right step would be an API so that individuals and news organizations could use this data in their environments.

Both the map and this new search have clunky and slow interfaces. I'd like to see someone (us maybe) deliver a more usable one and let the cops focus on busting criminals while the webgeeks create the search tools.

If you want to see how a crime map should work:

http://chicagocrime.org/

We want to do the same for the whole DFW area-- after all, if you live in far East Dallas, Mesquite crime is relevant too. But getting the data into a consistent format and timely from all the local jurisdictions is an uphill battle (one that we will continue to fight).

1 year, 8 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Mike Orren

Mike Orren Staff

Bwaa haa haa... Overhearing developers in halloween pirate garb looking over the new site and intimating that this is enough fuel for us to do what we'd planned in Dallas proper.

Drooling...

1 year, 8 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Billusa99

Billusa99 Anonymous

New Orleans had had this for a while now.

http://cno-gisweb02.cityofno.com/crim...

It gives crimes within a one mile radius of an address, icon-keyed by type. It's for the previous one month period and is "fresh" as of 2 weeks prior.

Of course, they really NEED it. http://cno-gisweb02.cityofno.com/crim...

1 year, 8 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

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