Crime data from the city of St. Louis is once again available online in map formats.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department announced on Monday that the new tool had gone live over the weekend. It generates searchable maps that will contain information of almost every crime in the city, from misdemeanors to homicides. The data will update roughly every 24 hours and will go back six months.
Chief Robert Tracy said making the information available in an easily viewed format may help people’s perception about crime catch up to the reality that it is down in almost all categories.
“A lot of times, [people] say we can’t make an informed decision because we’re not seeing everything you’re seeing,” he said. “Well, you’re seeing it now with some protections on the victims and anonymizing some of the address. You’re getting it down to the block level.”
The data will be especially helpful for neighborhood anti-violence advocates, said Wil Pinkney, director of the city’s Office of Violence Prevention.
“It will activate community members and partner organizations by providing data that can help determine where to deploy vital violence prevention and intervention resources,” he said in a statement.
Sex crimes, domestic violence and cases in which the victim is a juvenile will not be included on the maps. They can be accessed at www.slmpd.org/mapping.
