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Google Map Hack & Chicago Crime Data

Posted by Hemos on from the good-applicatons dept.

joepez writes "In recent weeks we've seen some great Google Maps hacks (HousingMaps, Google's own Ride Finder, etc.), but this weekend Adrian has brought us something truly innovative. He's merged Google map data with Chicago crime data to present a once a day updated crime map of the entire city, including some really nice summarized data. Adrian calls the project Chicagocrime.org. How long till we have real time crime data showing up on Google's map? Pull open HousingMaps next to Chicagocrime.org and figure out if that low rent apartment is truly worth it. Or is this all a clever trick on Google's part to build up more and more third parties dependent upon Google?" There's also a cheap gas hack as well.

14 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. Why not both by millahtime · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Pull open HousingMaps next to Chicagocrime.org and figure out if that low rent apartment is truly worth it. Or is this all a clever trick on Google's part to build up more and more third parties dependent upon Google?

    Why can't it be both. And if there is a way to keep it free the better for me.

    --
    Evolution or ID?
  2. Sex Offender's Registry by killproc · · Score: 5, Interesting


    A better implementation for this would be to link to each individual State's sex offender's registry. This data is readily provided and is in the public domain.

    --
    When you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness. So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.
    1. Re:Sex Offender's Registry by Gr33nNight · · Score: 5, Interesting

      A friend of mine is labeled a sex offender because when he was 18, his girlfriend was 17 (3 months apart). His girlfriends mother called the policyeabout it and he got arrested. Now he is considered a sex offender.

      Not all sex offenders are child molesters and kiddie rapists.

    2. Re:Sex Offender's Registry by Snoop+Donkey+Donk · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Our local newspaper had a blurb about a guy who was having problems coaching his kid's soccer team because they did a background check and he came up as a sex offender - he had been arrested during his college days for mooning.

    3. Re:Sex Offender's Registry by zerbot · · Score: 4, Interesting

      In our state, offenders are coded, and level 1 offenders like your 19 year old with a 15 year old girlfriend don't even show up. Some people think I am paranoid and overprotective about my children, I look at the map of level 2 and 3 sex offenders near my house and feel quite justified in that.

      Exact addresses are not given, just stuff like "1900 block of 25th Avenue".

    4. Re:Sex Offender's Registry by h4rm0ny · · Score: 5, Interesting


      A British newspaper did a bit of shit stirring in an attempt to boost sales. They published locations of sexual offenders names and addresses around the country. It kicked off a wave of assaults, cases of mistaken identity and included one woman whose home was wrecked and she narrowly escaped... because she was a peadiatrician.

      You want mob justice? Prepare for trial by gossip, then.

      --

      Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
  3. My Google Hack Idea by 0kComputer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not sure if this has been implemented yet. Or even how to do so, but I think a cool Google hack would be a graphical trace route program simillar to NeoTrace.

    Not sure how it would make money, but would be cool as hell with those satellite maps.

    --
    Top 10 Reasons To Procrastinate
    10.
  4. Wow... by DeionXxX · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm just simply amazed by both of the tools mentioned (the Crime Data and the Housing Maps)... we really live in interesting times. Why do these hacks work so well? Has google built an API to access these maps and to plot points on them, or have the developers of each of these hacks reverse-engineered the Google maps interface and figured out how to place stuff on them?

  5. The big picture by RealProgrammer · · Score: 5, Interesting
    (er, so to speak)

    Or is this all a clever trick on Google's part to build up more and more third parties dependent upon Google?

    I think it's just a case of people using tools in ways their creators didn't envision. As Perl's Larry Wall says, that's the mark of a good tool.

    Another way to look at it is that if you serve people, they become dependent on you. Google is trying to build its business by offering services and getting people hooked.

    I, for one, welcome our new information infrastructure servant overlords.

    --
    sigs, as if you care.
  6. Re:Prostitution by fm6 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, Johns tend to be non-local married men.

  7. Google maps with craigslist - Howto by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    a howto which describes, how to combine Criagslist with Google Maps similar to the site mentioned inn the summary (http://www.paulrademacher.com/housing/)

  8. heh. the other night by Harper · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I whipped up a google maps hack of geolocation of Illinois registered sex offenders: http://demon.dopeman.org/sexOffenders/ It was amazingly easy.

    I used all of the tutorials and shit that the rancidbacon peeps created. made it rather simple. actually delightful.

    now if i was only mapping locations of something cool.. rather than depressing things.

    stupid maps.

    --
    Producing satire is kind of hopeless because of the literacy rate of the American public. - Frank Zappa
  9. Re:OT: SimCity by glass_window · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Who knows, but I can't wait to be able to check out my land value, my water coverage, my electric coverage, my air polution, all through the handy interface of google maps!

  10. How long before real estate interests ... by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How long till we have real time crime data showing up on Google's map?

    How long before real estate interests make him pull the site down or make the agencies providing the crime data stop providing it - or stop providing it in a computer-useful form?

    Not a purely academic question. My wife noticed that crimes we's heard about from other sources was not being reported in some areas of Silicon Valley and asked the San Jose paper in question about it. The person she reached said that they didn't want to depress real estate values. B-(

    Then they wonder why we don't subscribe these days, and prefer to get our news from the web.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way