When I started out researching news mapping, I didn’t think much of it. If you live in Old West Lawrence, for instance, and there is a spate of robberies in the neighborhood, this is newsworthy to you and perhaps even the citizens in other parts of the city. I assume this is the thought process of chicagocrime.org. Aside from a morbid curiosity or researching a neighborhood before moving, why is this necessary?
Isn’t the location of the crimes going to be reported in the news story? Aren’t you going to be aware that this is happening around you because you saw it on the news? I can’t remember the last time that I saw a story on the local news that didn’t highlight the area where the crime occurred. I know, this assumes people watch the news. But aren’t the same eyeballs looking at chicagocrime.org going to look at local news?
What good comes from having a map that shows the location of local crimes? I really don’t see the point for the person on the street. It seems to be yet another reason for people to shutter themselves into their homes at night, leaving the streets to the criminals. It is yet another tool in the arsenal of the fear mongers. To me, and lots of other people, this is exactly the wrong thing to do if we want to make our neighborhoods safer.
Should we all don the red beret, using a news map as our attack plan?
Bear in mind, this is just one element of news mapping. But this is the one that is winning awards. Am I obtuse? I just don’t get the fascination. Tell me how I am wrong, because I really do want to understand this.
#1 by adrian on November 1, 2005 - 2:11 pm
It’s necessary because an informed citizenry is a more careful (and safer) citizenry. Just ask the Chicago Police Department; they make this information available specifically to make citizens more aware. Prevention starts with awareness.
The previous comment is right: These crimes aren’t reported by traditional media. Chicago ain’t no Old West Lawrence.
But even if Chicago *were* as small as Lawrence, a database such as chicagocrime.org would be a FAR better display of information than a news story or simple police blurb.
A police blurb is just a flat list of text, whereas chicagocrime.org stores its data in a database. “Dumb” text, such as that in a police blotter, can’t be sorted, mashed up or sliced-and-diced in various ways. News organizations ought to be storing more of their data in databases rather than distilling it into plain text. The more granular and machine-friendly information is, the more valuable it is. Because the chicagocrime.org information is in a database, I’m able to match it up with other Chicago data, such as census data.
I’d strongly encourage you to take a computer-assisted reporting class, if KU offers one.
Also, look beyond the maps. chicagocrime.org lets you browse by all sorts of different parameters — ZIP code, type of crime, city ward, police beat/district. It lets you draw a route and tells you which crimes have been reported along that route. It offers RSS feeds for each city block. Maps are just one aspect of the site.
Adrian Holovaty
chicagocrime.org
#2 by Learning The Lessons of Nixon » This Week In Citizen Journalism v2 on November 1, 2005 - 2:11 pm
[…] KU j-student Patrick Lafferty thinks crime-mapping sites will just frighten people for no good reason. He asks, What am I missing here? […]
#3 by plafferty on November 1, 2005 - 2:11 pm
I agree that an informed citizenry is essential. I also recognize the power of the database and agree it is the way crime stats should be stored. As I said, this is not unimportant information to certain people.
My question is, if Chicago is such a dangerous place to live (automatic weapons don’t make the news?), what does this do to help? My knowledge that there were three murders on my block in the past month doesn’t stop the killing. But it does scare the hell out of me. And not because I am from backwards Kansas.
Adrian, don’t get me wrong. Innovations such as yours start the ball rolling and develop new ideas such as that of my cohort Brian Wacker. I am not sticking my head in the sand about crime stats. Yours is a tool for professionals and it does a wonderful service to reporters and researchers alike. I was merely wondering why Joe Schmoe would take the time to study crime stats on a regular basis.
I still think the answer rests in the hearts of fear mongers, but I thank you for your response.
#4 by rmusser on November 1, 2005 - 2:11 pm
Ah, swimming upstream as a form of mental exercise again?
I think the crime map fascination comes from the fact that, in Chicago, you do not get the local crimes covered all that much. I speak from experience. When I worked at WGN we paid little attention to murders - unless they were multiple homicides or involved the cops killing somebody or being killed.
In Old West Lawrence, a burglary will probably make the newspaper’s police log. In Chicago, an armed robbery without automatic weapons going off rarely gets noticed in the media. Hence, chicagocrime.org serves a real purpose.
So, our question: How do news maps work in Lawrence? See Wacker’s answer, for one.