-Jerry

I can’t see that StatsCan has an interest in providing such a data mash-up. I also can’t see that the police have an interest in providing such a mash-up. The real-estate (service) sector might, but if the data isn’t freely available, then that’s not going to happen.

I’m sure there are other ways to mash up this data where users have no interest in the context within which the police want the data presented. For example, the insurance companies who cover property crime don’t care whether the crimes were solved, committed by one person or many, etc. They just care about getting the insurance premium right.

Police are a public service, and Canadian courts have ruled that free speech includes the right to receive information — especially about matters of public interest. Draw your own conclusions about how the terms of use would stand up in a court case.

Maybe the officer deployment was a bad example…I was probably thinking about the ETS officers or whatever, they often announce those.

I too would like to see solvency rates.

Maybe if the map showed some solvency rates, it would go a long way to, like I said above, show the fantastic job EPS officers do. But again, that information could be reflected in basic statistics and not some…map.

As well, we shouldn’t need to insinuate the reasons behind the types of decisions you mentioned above from a crime map…if that’s the case, the real advocacy here should be behind openness and transparency from municipal government.

And finally, information like officer deployment should never be made public (for the same reasons police don’t comment about ongoing investigations). Sharing that information puts both the public & officers at risk – imagine, as a dangerous offender, knowing exactly where the lowest level of police coverage was, and being able to exploit that.

Anyways. I’ll leave the commenting to some other folks, now. Either way, I suppose we all agree that communication is a good thing

However, I think this project does provide value. First and foremost, it makes information available to enable better decision making. Is that politician telling the truth? Why did EPS just assign more officers there? Why is the City spending money on street lights there? These are the kinds of questions that we can start to answer by having access to data.

It also empowers individuals and community organizations to take action themselves. Perhaps the community league in a neighbourhood realizes that the number of thefts is increasing. They can then do something about it, such as distribute flyers throughout the community or something similar.

There are a variety of other ways this data can provide value…all it takes is some creativity, and permission to use the data!

I know it helps me to feel more afraid, I mean, secure every day.

This data is immensely useful on an internal level to the EPS to help focus efforts more efficiently, and curb trends in high-crime areas. But publicly, it strikes me as something that will do nothing but harm the public opinion of certain areas in the city – propagating the development of slums and other such undesirable places.

As well, the implementation of the data is somewhat suspect… At this point, the requirements for an incident to be included on the map are a little lax. There are a number of situations that could greatly skew the look and concentration of points on the map.

While I appreciate the attitude certain EPS officers have taken in furthering this initiative, I don’t feel that it does the public any great service. Everything the EPS can do to open communications with the public will go a long way to restoring public opinion of Police to where it should be: as men and women who daily put their lives on the line to protect us from the criminals who would do us harm. But in regards to this, let me say what everyone’s thinking: “If I see an area of high crime on this map, I’m not going to live there, walk there, or do business there.” I feel that attitude will further the erosion rather than help prevent it.

I want the police internally to focus their efforts on what this map shows… but I would rather look at statistics that show I can feel safe on EVERY street in Edmonton.

This is certainly just my opinion, but I’ve had a raised eyebrow at this project from the beginning.

And if they are really concerned about citizens coming across false information, there are better ways of solving that problem. There’s nothing technical in the way of republishing the stats today anyway.

1) They find the data from Stats Can too restrictive and they want to make it more accessible to the community. If this is the case, then why put in further restrictions? They’re not solving the problem, just creating a new barrier.

2) They thought the idea of a crime map was “cool” and would be useful to Edmontonians. If this is the case, then why limit how useful and “cool” it can be by placing restrictions on the data’s use?

Either way it seems to me the logical choice is to open up the data.