Petition for Chicago crime data
Here's your chance to help convince the local government in Chicago to release more crime data to the public. We've prepared the following petition and will bring it to local government officials when enough people have signed it.
The petition
To: The Chicago Police Department
We, the undersigned, are requesting that the Chicago Police Department release narrative descriptions of crime incidents.
For years, the CPD has given the public access to incident-level crime data through its CLEARMAP (previously called Citizen ICAM) Web application. We commend the department for its technological innovation in creating this tool, which allows citizens to access crime incident reports via their home computers instead of having to leaf through paper reports at the local police station. It also makes it possible for independent sites such as EveryBlock to perform further analysis.
However, we believe it's time to make more crime data available -- specifically, a narrative description of each crime. Currently, the CPD publishes each reported crime's block number, date, time, classification and beat number -- but it does not publish a narrative description for each crime. This information would be much more useful if a narrative description were made available to the public with the rest of the data.
For example, in the current CPD data, a resident can learn of an assault in the 100 block of S. Michigan Ave., but no context is given about the circumstances of the crime, such as whether the crime was a random occurrence or whether the victim knew the suspect. This extra context can make a significant difference in how citizens understand the crime in their neighborhoods and work together to prevent it.
Narrative reports are already available to citizens of Chicago, as public record, at police stations. We are asking that the records also be made available digitally, over the Internet. A good example of prior art is the Charlotte, N.C., police department's "significant event log", which publishes narratives with its crime reports.
When more crime information is put in the hands of the public, the public can do more to help prevent crime. With more context, citizens of Chicago can take better measures to keep their neighborhoods safer.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
Sign here
We will share your name and location only with city officials to prove that actual city residents signed. Otherwise, your name and location will be kept private and will not be posted to the Internet or anywhere else.
