[open-government] [CityCamp Exchange] Fwd: [COG] $1 Million earmark for CrimeReports.com = less real public data access

Tue Sep 21 12:39:18 UTC 2010

“@daeaves: New on eaves.ca: Does your Government (and thus you)
actually own its data? http://bit.ly/aTUQ3n #gov20 #opendata”

On Saturday, September 18, 2010, Steven Clift <clift at e-democracy.org> wrote:
> This is BAD news for opening up broad access to crime data - the
> number one everyday citizen demanded government information based my
> direct experience with online community forums. Note some useful
> links: http://pages.e-democracy.org/Minneapolis_and_St._Paul_crime_data
>
> "CrimeReports is contending in a current federal case that public crime
> data becomes CrimeReports' own proprietary product in the form
> provided on CrimeReports.com."
>
> The bill should be amended to fund an effort modeled on the
> standardization of transit scheduling/routing data -
> http://www.gtfs-data-exchange.com - so that all police departments can
> put out real-time feeds of various crime data (heck, Seattle even does
> 911 calls now - http://schrier.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/citywatch/ )
> for broad reuse.
>
> Like weather data provided by the federal government, it gets to the
> people through many, often competing providers.
>
> Read on below.
>
> Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
>   Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org
>   Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy
>   New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
>
>
> From: Dan Knauss <dan at newlocalmedia.com>
> Date: Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 3:35 PM
> Subject: [COG] $1 Million earmark for CrimeReports.com = less real
> public data access
> To: Citizens For OpenGov <citizens-for-opengov at googlegroups.com>
>
>
> In the FY 2011 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies
> Appropriations Requests, there is a $1 Million request for the Major
> Cities Chiefs of Police Association which would be used to purchase
> services from CrimeReports.com.
> http://bennett.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=CommerceRequests
>
> CrimeReports.com is a private company that makes contracts with
> municipal police forces to provide their crime data to the public on
> the CrimeReports.com website--but according to the PDs' specifiations.
> In the process, the public information that the source crime data is
> may seem to become more accessible, but this is not the case.
>
> CrimeReports is contending in a current federal case that public crime
> data becomes CrimeReports' own proprietary product in the form
> provided on CrimeReports.com. (See links below and The Citizen Media
> Law Project's article, "Public Engines to World: Look, But Don't Touch
> the Crime Data"
> http://www.citmedialaw.org/blog/2010/public-engines-world-look-dont-touch-crime-data)
>
> In this view it would be technically illegal for someone to duplicate
> or republish material from CrimeReports.com by other means, which many
> PDs may use as their sole or primary means of providing public access
> to crime data. (It is not access to data, it is access to a limited
> representation of some data.) This is not only bad for public and
> media oversight, it is bad for technologists who wish to tap public
> data for research and applications.
>
> From the appropriations document:
>
> Project: The National Crime Map Expansion
> Amount: $1,000,000
> Purpose: The National Crime Map currently includes more than 800 law
> enforcement agencies across the country; its aim to make incident
> level crime data available to the general public at the neighborhood
> level within 24 hours of occurrence.
> Location: Draper, Utah
> Recipient of Funds: Major Cities Chiefs of Police Association
> Explanation/Justification: Very few members of the public have ready
> access to street level crime information on a timely basis. This
> funding will allow any law enforcement agency in the United States to
> connect to the existing National Crime Map, CrimeReports.com.
> Currently, more than 800 agencies have already joined at an average
> total cost of $110 per month. Through this funding, CrimeReports.com
> will be able to expand the map and drop the cost of integrating and
> deploying the system to roughly $20/month per agency, regardless of
> size, population served, or members of the community served. In
> contrast, cities that build their own portals spend $50,000 - $100,000
> per agency to implement local crime maps.
>
>
> Further reading:
> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100614/0208019805.shtml
> http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/public-engines-inc-v-reportsee-inc
>
> Steven Clift
> Ericsson, Minneapolis
> About Steven Clift: http://forums.e-democracy.org/p/stevenclift
>
> View all topic messages: http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/topic/7iFc3yoP5oVgNkWRTBY4Tk
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-- 
Kevin Curry
Virginia Beach, VA
http://twitter.com/kmcurry