Police regularly cite crime statistics at budget hearings, neighborhood meetings and press conferences, but the information is always available to curious residents online.
If you want to compare the crime rate in neighborhoods, go here. If you want to see a map of crimes reported in your neighborhood, go here. If you want to dig through a database of monthly crime statistics, go here.
I’ve used these tools in the past to help pinpoint hubs for street prostitution, find a popular locale for drug dealers downtown and visualize the decline of violent crime. Next week, I’ll be setting aside some time to reexamine neighborhood-level crime trends and I hope you’ll join my exploration.
Check out the crime statistics for your neighborhood and let me know what you find most interesting. Is crime higher or lower than you expected? How does it compare with the surrounding neighborhoods? How does it compare with previous years? Why do you think it changed?
If you have a few minutes over the weekend, just shoot your thoughts in an email to keegan.kyle@voiceofsandiego.org. With your help, I’m hoping to pinpoint more interesting crime trends around the city.
Please contact Keegan Kyle directly at keegan.kyle@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5668 and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/keegankyle.