Halifax Regional Police and Halifax District RCMP want your help shaping the future of a new tool in the fight against crime.
Last week, HRM Partners in Policing launched HRM Crime Mapping, an interactive site to provide you with contextual and timely information about crime in the areas where you live, work and play.
The site, accessible at www.halifax.ca/Police/PublicSafety/HRMCrimeMapping.html, is updated daily at 12:15 a.m. with incidents of five specific crime types - robberies, assaults, break and enters, thefts of vehicles and thefts from vehicles. These crime types were selected given that you can take steps to protect yourself from becoming a victim if armed with information about what's happening in our community.
HRM Crime Mapping allows you to view the selected crime types one at a time, several at a time or altogether by three different time frames - yesterday, the past four days and the past week. It also allows you to search crime types by street name or community. To ensure people's privacy, crimes are plotted on the mid-point of the closest block and are not associated with any specific civic address.
The site, based on the crime mapping program from the city of Naples, Florida, also provides links to HRP and RCMP's social media sites, websites and crime prevention information.
The initial response has been overwhelmingly positive with citizens providing constructive suggestions:
"I love the idea, I think it's great for the community. I think it helps with transparency between police, crime and the community."
"The new crime map is a great idea. We sell homes to people from out of town that would love to see this type of data to understand where the high crime areas are. Be nice to see the crime map go for longer than seven days."
HRM Crime Mapping is a pilot project and during this testing phase, we're looking for your feedback on how we can improve the site to make it a more effective tool for you. You can forward your comments and recommendations by email to contacthrp@halifax.ca.
