Martin Austermuhle
Over the last few months, a number of people have found ways to plug the District’s criminal incident reports into online mapping programs, allowing us a visual snapshot of criminal activity from area to the next. First came incidentlog.com, followed closely thereafter by Post’s own crime map.
Today our friends at Gallery Place Living tipped us off to a new crime map they’ve introduced, this one mixing weekly incident reports from Crimereports.com and the usual Google Map. The map is divided along the lines of the city’s seven Police Service Areas (PSA) Police Districts.
While all of these tools are innovative in their own right — and many improve upon some of the quirks of their predecessors — we’re still hoping for that the Metropolitan Police Department will recognize the usefulness of the concept and undertake the project themselves. They more than anyone would be able to provide the most updated criminal incident reports, and may actually be able to put some good money into making the mapping tool easily accessible and fully functional.
