serial consign

A good start towards a provocative data mashup application is the combination of maps and demographics. These types of projects generally operate through the superimposition of statistical information and geospatial data culled from readily available databases of satellite photography. These tools have provided us with a number of new means of perceiving, understanding and annotating the city around us. I'd like to take this opportunity to discuss two web applications that create an interface around urban mapping and the demographic information associated with law enforcement. These applications, entitled Chicago Crime and Oakland Crimespotting, are a springboard into a fascinating discussion about perception, demographics and the city.

As a student of the drawing board, I have already expressed my fascination with the documentation of crime scenes. I find it incredible how the origin of a complex chain of events can be reverse-engineered out of the site of an act of violence - hours, days or even years later. Crime scene investigation is a complex enterprise in multimedia archiving which deconstructs the scene of an event into several types of information. Images are shot, evidence and genetic residue are collected and cataloged, statements transcribed, ballistics analyzed and CCTV footage is scanned. These streams of data feed into interlocking law enforcement and legal agencies where they can be used to arrest a perpetrator and prosecute them in criminal court. However, what happens to this data once a crime has been archived? How can we use this information to better understand the nature of the city around us?

[chicago crime interface]

Chicago Crime is one of the most influential of the first wave of Google mashup applications. The project was launched in 2005 and was identified by the New York Times as one of the most forward thinking web projects of that year. The application was designed by journalist and web developer Adrian Holovaty and combined data from the Chicago Police Departments CLEARmap crime database and Google Maps. Chicago Crime is an extremely powerful data tool and it is possible to isolate crimes by type, location, date, police district or ward, zip code and location and even access related media coverage.

[chicago crime - crime demographic information for south chicago]

Chicago Crime is characterized by a skeletal but powerful interface which facilitates an incredible dexterity in moving through crime-space data. Holovaty is quite outspoken about data as a social tool and he is an advocate for the complete overhaul of the news industry (see previous post).

[oakland crimespotting interface - every crime reported on september 19th]

This past August, Michal Migurski, Tom Carden and Eric Rodenbeck of Stamen launched a new project called Oakland Crimespotting. The application was partially inspired by Chicago Crime and it combines crime statistics from the city of Oakland's Crimewatch service and Microsoft Virtual Earth map database (see Migurski's blog for more info on the development of the project).

The Oakland Crimespotting interface is considerably more graphic than that of Chicago Crime. Crime types are categorized and colour-coded to group violent offenses, property-related crime, and criminal activities that effect quality of life. Like in Chicago Crime, it is possible to isolate blocks of time and types of crimes and the aforementioned "crime taxonomy" lends itself to some interesting comparisons (i.e. the locations of prostitution in relation to vehicle theft and burglary, as pictured below).

Oakland Crimespotting is extremely usable and at times the information nested within the system seems to melt into the interface. This makes navigating the system a purely visual exercise, while the workflow of operating Chicago Crime can sometimes be bogged down in manipulating text menus. Beyond that observation there isn't much point in comparing these two distinct approaches to representing similar data sets.

What is so interesting about these projects is the degree to which they empower users to examine and study demographic trends with current information. The Oakland Crimespotting project description suggests that access to crime data is an important tool, not only for safety but to help users understanding the city around them:

What if the local papers didn’t report a rash of car break-ins in your neighborhood, how would you know? The web opens up opportunities to find information without having to rely on which stories make it to the front page of the newspaper, or the lead story on the evening news. We need to be able to explore public information, to draw connections, and to see new possibilities for questioning.

These applications allow users to cut through the rhetoric and stereotypes that can cripple neighbourhoods and promote developing an understanding of what asocial activities are taking place throughout the city. They can also serve as research tools for communities to foreground issues that may not be getting adequate media coverage or political attention.

I highly recommend taking both of these applications for a spin as they each provide a fascinating window into how crime plays out across urban space.