Online mapping services help police spot trends in crime

— -- A growing number of police departments — nearly 1,000 nationwide — are using online crime mapping services to grab data from their police reports, identify crime trends and then push the information to the public through online maps and e-mail alerts.

"The more people understand what's going on in a neighborhood, the more they can respond to it," says East Palo Alto Police Chief Ron Davis, who began using one such mapping program, CrimeReports.com, six months ago.

Crime mapping services report an increase in the number of police department subscribers:

• CrimeReports.com, which signed up its first agency, Washington's Metropolitan Police, in June 2007, has a roster of about 500 departments and 40 to 50 agencies coming online each month, says founder Greg Whisenant. Computer programs analyze electronic dispatch records and crime reports for common characteristics to create charts and maps, he says.

"Knowing about crime in your neighborhood will help you take action, even if it's as simple as turning on a porch light," Whisenant says.

CrimeReports.com charges police agencies $100 to $200 a month for the service.

East Palo Alto Police give basic data to the community through an online, interactive map and e-mail alert system. More than 250 people get regular alerts and many more visit the site, crime analyst Doris Cohen says.

• The Omega Group, a San Diego-based crime analysis and mapping company that launched a public access program, CrimeMapping.com, two years ago, has 50 law enforcement agencies on the service and 50 others coming online, spokesman Trip Albagdadi says.

"It's grown exponentially," Albagdadi says. "Police departments understand they could use the public's help."

Public interest in such information is growing, too. SpotCrime.com, which culls crime data from public records to create its maps, partners with TV and newspaper websites which provide the information to their audiences. The service features more than 200 cities and is on 71 news media websites, up from 10 in January, CEO Colin Drane says.