Mean streets of Georgetown: University-area crime map
Posted by: Molly Redden in News, Vox Populi, tags: Crime, Crime Map, DPS, GeorgetownCaution: Blurbs are huge, follow the link to the larger map to view them
Having already complained about everybody else’s crime map, and pending the loss of MPD email alerts, Vox went ahead and made its own crime map for the Georgetown University area.
Compiled mainly from Department of Public Safety PSAs and, in cases where DPS did not report on the incident, such as the October attack on a Georgetown med student, from Voice and Vox Populi archives, the map above shows most of the crimes that have taken place near campus this school year to date.
I say ‘most’ because I haven’t included some of the more mundane crimes reported in the DPS blotter, such as Friday the 23rd’s “Mischievous conduct in Henle,” (an incident in which several persons threw rocks and empty beer cans from a Henle rooftop). I’ll continue to keep up with the blotter in the event that something more threatening to your safety pops up, but for now, if it’s fine by you, I’ll stick with DPS, CapStat, and the archives.
We’ll update the map regularly and alert you on our Twitter feed whenever we do so. Each crime blurb includes a description of the crime that occurred along with a link to Vox or the Voice’s coverage, which reads “expanded coverage…” or “even more coverage…” if the article expands on the narrative provided by DPS or provides follow-up information on the crime.
The map is of ironic lesser quality than its citywide counterparts, but given our little old budget, it’s not a bad start. And of course, we’re eager for feedback.
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This looks like a great resource for Georgetown in specific, but I question if there aren’t better/more efficient ways to gather and display this information? For example, there is a website called crimereports.com that is free and aggregates criminal activity from official law enforcement agencies. And you can search for specific types of crimes during specific periods of times, etc. Although it looks like you’ve spent a lot of time, effort, and resources making this map, I wonder if something like crimereports.com might be a more efficient solution.
You guys over at CR (sly advertising, you!) have a good thing going. But this map allows students to see what types of crimes student fall victim to at the highest rate.
I’m also familiar with MPD, from which you gather info, and knowing the way they work sometimes, this map will be update with information relevant to students at a much faster rate.
But most importantly, unlike CR, most of our links provide full explanations of a crime, which ought to prove incredibly valuable to students, given that crime narratives MPD provide to sites like yours are often confusing or limited in their descriptions.