I really enjoy CrimeandPlace’s concept.
And I was convinced that this would be a great and reliable way to avoid bad areas... until dug a little deeper.
I looked up the crime rate for an affluent area I lived at not too long ago, and I was surprised to find that it was above the national average above 6.
This really surprised me, as this address was in one of the safest areas in the city, with some of the most expensive homes in that state. I suspected that something was wrong.
I decided to compare this and other neighborhoods on other crime tracking websites, and I found that often times they didn’t match at all. Some websites listed high crime areas in places that CrimeandPlace displayed green, and vice versa. Some of those websites also listed locations and descriptions of reported crimes, and they didn’t really track well with what CrimeandPlace displays. One area was dark red in CrimeandPlace , but didn’t show up as having reported crimes from other websites.
So really, if the data is questionable, what conclusions can you safely draw from using CrimeandPlace ? One cannot confirm that CrimeandPlace is working as intended by saying crimes that weren’t committed to them.
I feel the developer can improve CrimeandPlace by disclosing where the data comes from, and perhaps adding markers of reported crimes in specific areas so we can better see what goes behind the color.
I want to be able to trust CrimeandPlace, and I hope the developer takes these considerations in mind.