Slashdot Mirror
Google Map Hack & Chicago Crime Data
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.
Not a single comment, and the site is already crawling. I guess some people actually read the articles!
Try out fish, the friendly interactive shell.
If you select 'prostitution' you can check out the best areas to go to pick up a hooker. Not that this is of any use to me as I'm a) not single and b) not in the US.
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?
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.
Combine housing maps and crime maps to discover exactly where not to live in Chicago!
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.
The NYPD uses a system very much like this, called COMPSTAT.
More about the history of the program here (clicky)
Here's an excerpt from the NYPD website:
"Among the Command and Control Center's high-tech capabilities is its computerized 'pin mapping' which displays crime, arrest and quality of life data in a host of visual formats including comparative charts, graphs and tables. Through the use of MAPINFO software and other computer technology, for example, the CompStat database can be accessed and a precinct map depicting virtually any combination of crime and/or arrest locations, crime 'hot spots' and other relevant information can be instantly projected on the Center's large video projection screens."
"For every right, an equal responsibility..."
Or is this all a clever trick on Google's part to build up more and more third parties dependent upon Google?
I doubt that Google intended on getting third parties dependent on GMaps. If they really wanted that to happen they would have released an open API rather than having to have people poke around in the code to figure out how it all worked.
Yeah, you can do some REALLY neat stuff with GMaps now (and even some of the things I suggested should be available when it first came out) but I just don't think that it was Google's main intention.
If anything, they just want to be a player in the same markets as Yahoo and MSN and not have to link to their competitor's mapping products.
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?
<obligatory>
It's already been done
</obligatory>
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
I was able to tell the moment the Slashdot story went online... the chicagocrime.org site suddenly stopped responding. And it's not like we could have linked to a mirror.
So you'll just have to take my word for it -- it was pretty cool. I found out that there were three reported crimes at Chicago cemeteries, for example -- a theft, a trespassing, and a vandalism. Crimes at airports included a "theft by lessee" -- looks like there's somebody at Midway who you shouldn't get your rental car from.
The gas station link is holding up better, though. Hope it's not hosted at a gas station... kablooie!
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
The Chicago Police Department already has a web interface, called Citizen ICAM, which displays the same info. I do believe that the new site is compiling its data from ICAM. You can check out ICAM at http://12.17.79.6/
It would be really useful if it could tell where the crime was about to occur .. in advance
And noting that it doesn't appear at all, I can only conclude that there is no crime in Chicago.
It must be a wonderful place to live!
I haven't been able to connect to the site yet, but I'm wondering how closely it resembles the crime map view in SimCity. :)
Ah, what a great game...
http://nerdfortress.com/
A true public service for undercover-cop fetishists!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
It's amazing how fast a company can go from being Slashdot's little darling to suddenly being suspected at every turn of being the new EvilEmpire(tm).
Guys, these people are making wonderful tools and making them available for free, and letting people mess with them. They're probably reading comments like that slack-jawed, thinking "man, you just can't win with that crowd!" Give em a break! :)
-M
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.
It let me see that one prospective condo was right in a corner of fairly low crime, bordered by much higher crime. I could have guessed that visiting the neighborhood, but it was nice to see somewhat empirically.
Most exciting phrase in science: not "Eureka!" but "Hmm... That's funny..." -Asimov (abridged for \. limits)
a howto which describes, how to combine Criagslist with Google Maps similar to the site mentioned inn the summary (http://www.paulrademacher.com/housing/)
As it turned out, the area was "bad." I wonder if she just didn't want to tell me, or is there really such a restriction?
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
How hard is it for the editor who posts these stories to the front page of Slashdot to replace them with Coral Cache links?
Seriously, just make it an automated process or something. ALWAYS make it a Coral link.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
This is actually a great project. It would be great if there was some way to adopt this on a much larger scale, covering as many large cities as possible, thus making it incredibly useful to tourists who are visiting cities. It shouldn't be limited to just American cities either. Obviously this may not be reasonable, considering the amount of work it would entail, and also I am not aware of how difficult it would be to get crime data for cities in other countries, but it certainly would be something worth looking into I think.
A geographical map of sites unreachable due to the Slashdot Effect.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The trick is to come up with a visual representation so that if some crook is hitting South Side liquor stores about once a week, somebody sees it. In classical policing, that's not likely to be noticed unless the crook commits all their crimes in the same precinct on the same shift.
Apparently my neighbors in the next block have a pretty serious TRO violation problem. =S But, I'm happy to see that there hasn't been any crime on my block of Chicago. Even though I've seen this site before, it's still cool, especially with satellite options.
Or is this all a clever trick on Google's part to build up more and more third parties dependent upon Google?
Probably, yes but WTF? Google is offering a service, you can choose to use it, or not. Go build your own if you don't like the fact that a Company is doing it (GL HF). Not every product or service offered by a company is some sort of hidden conspiracy to steal our lives and take our money. I also fail to see how "novelty" products such as these constitute a "dependency" on the google map service.
Real-time crime maps have already been done by the guys at rancidbacon.com. So you can see a near real-time Seattle crime map. Well, the crime reporting, not the crime as it's taking place
I'll tell you what the real crime is... not submitting any mirrors! We're going to get arrested for arson on this guy's server.
Mirrordot came up empty but there does seem to be a Coral Cache available.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
What I want is someone to hack google maps to display full screen (1024 X 768) or nearly on 90% of the screen. The challenge is that even if you set the browser to full screen, the map height X width is fixed.
It should be a very simple hack. Let us know if someone has already done it.
"Server found alive after being mercilessly buried by slasdotters."
Faith: n. -- That human impulse that drives them to steal appliances when the power goes out
I live in a resort community in the Colorado rocky mountains. Every fall we have a few weeks
of elk (wapiti) mating season where tourist type folks drive around looking for the herds of elk.
I think it would be really cool to have a google maps app on a website where people could click on a map to show where they saw elk.
How would I go about doing that?
Is this even legal? Obviously, these are "good" causes, but what if someone was to create a commercial product based on a google maps hack? Would that even be legal?
The data source (city of chicago ICAM) already runs a searchable, mappable, filterable crime map:
...and it's not slashdotted.
http://12.17.79.6/ctznicam/ctznicam.asp
I wish someone would show the sales rates of birth control superimposed over a map so I can find easy women. Actually that would probably backfire. Women smart enough to take charge of their bodies probably have higher self esteem then I could crack. What did Jay and Silent Bob say about abortion clinics?
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
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
Why are there all these Sarb-ox postings mixed in as replies to the Google crime hack? Even browsing at -1 I don't see the trail.
JGAA's anarchist political agenda is the central point of his WAR FTP Daemon software license. I wasn't aware there was a problem with his license. Can you elaborate?
GNU's license can also be interpreted as political support for communal ownership. Even the word "copyleft" has a connotation of political progressiveness. I'm sure others can give similar examples.
RFM
RFM
We already have PortlandMaps. You can see crime maps, tax maps, appraised value, bus routes, upcoming road improvments, much better satallite imagery... Google Maps has nothing on these guys. Every city should have something like this.
Just you wait until it's $6.50/gallon.
Deleted
Why can't I shake the mental image of Homer Simpson drooling "Tempting targets...mmmmmm"?
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
since, judging by my abilities to connect to the server, some criminals seem to have made off with the server
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
> How long till we have real time crime data showing up on Google's map?
and then the next logical step...
Dear Google Inc.:
I was pleased to hear that Google's map data had finally been merged with real-time crime data. To celebrate, I knocked over two liquor stores on the 800 block of Harrison, then mugged a guy over on Grant and committed some minor vandalism around Eastwood. Then I headed on back to my apartment to see my efforts rewarded on your site.
Imagine my surprise when I got back to my browser and discovered... NOTHING! I kept reloading the damn window every 15 minutes, but not a blip showed up. I cannot express my disgust.
It used to be the Google name meant something, but ever since your stock price hit $240 you've just been slacking. It's like nobody cares any more. It's enough to make a petty criminal like me lose his faith in humanity.
Signed,
-Disgusted in Chicago
I'm sure Maxis will patent this from their use of the tech from SimCity!
Anyone into creating a connect the dots puzzle?
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
U forgot about the dead Iraqi.....
1 gallon of gas = $2 and a dead Iraqi.....
certainly not cheap......but lotsOpeople don't seem to mind
Dissent is highly patriotic. Go read some history. Hell, I didn't even *go* to school, and I know some of these things!
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
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
Because sex offenses of a particular kind are actually related to sexual addiction, and there is an extremely high recidivism rate due to the fact that prisons don't treat addiction very effectively, and treating addiction at all is difficult in the first place, and these are people that are extremely deep into their addictions to have committed their crimes.
Having said that:
* Why don't we fix the prison system so it does treat addictive behaviors related to sex?
* Why don't we distinguish between sex crimes that are connected to an addition and those that are not, and not track sexual offenders who are unlikely to commit a new crime?
* Why are there so many people on the list who don't deserve to be there? (Misguided applications of the statutory-rape laws come to mind, as others have pointed out.)
Without fixing these problems I am opposed to the sex offender registry, but I do understand why it exists.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
Although "negro" is considered offensive (maybe parent doesn't know that), bringing up facts does not make parent racist.
Blacks are seven times more likely to commit homicide than whites.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/race.htm
Chicago really is a dangerous city. I didn't even apply to the University of Chicago (even though I had a reasonable chance of being admitted) due to the fact that the neighborhood around the college is so dangerous that students can't even leave!
E = m c^3 Don't drink and derive E = m c^3
Maybe when our cars take part in IP packet switching we will be able to keep real time tabs on crimes which we happen to see take place. Then the other cars in the city on the network can home in on [RECENTLY STOLEN CAR]. All the geeks can chase down the criminals before the cops get there and we can blast the criminals with our home made stun guns. Better yet we can have an online ui for which the highest bidder gets to trigger the stun gun via one click of a mouse button. ...kind of like a live unreal tournament.
The Chicago Police have something called ICAM which maps all of the crimes and the general type but not specifics http://12.17.79.6/ctznicam/ctznicam.asp Also, the site link provided for this guy's site wouldn't work for me. Anybody else having problems with it?
Probably not. I'm sure the US gov't would make life hell for ANY us-born company to sell to Cuba, regardless of how many other nations they're occupying.
And speaking of cubans not caring about computers... I just fixed one's computer while he sat here and intently watched my every move. Then he screwed me out of getting paid. Then he had the nerve to call later that night and tell me he was going to pick me up so I could hook up his printer.
Not solely based upon that small interaction with him, I'm not very fond of cubans in general.
You're nothing; like me.
I think I remember hearing the other day on the radio that Chicago had its first day without a shooting since something like a decade ago. That said, it's a fun city to visit.
Am I careful? Sure. I avoid poorly lit streets that have little traffic when it's dark, and I typically stick to areas that I know. That doesn't mean that I'm constantly looking over my shoulder though. I have walked through the neighborhood of Cabrini Green (an infamous area of public housing in Chicago) multiple times during the day and, at most, received strange looks.
The point is, yes, Chicago can be dangerous. But it is by no means some place teeming with violence where a resident is certain to be the victim of a crime. A little common sense and most people are fine.
The St. Louis PD already has something like this, albeit on a proprietary system.
People have obviously done their homework already to hack this thing... where is the community documentation? I want to support GPS's with this, like GPS Drive - that's a sweet app but with google driving direction downloads and maps it'd be truely amazing.
I haven't posted in so long, my sig is out of date.
There is a newly released interface to the mapserver application called Ka-Map that adopts a tiled map approach, similar to Google Maps. Pretty speedy considering maptools.org doesn't have anything close to Googles resources.
Just becase it's a dynamic site doesn't mean it won't benefit from Coral caching!
Sure, the dynamic bits still have to get through, but what about all the graphics that get served out? I know that's just bandwidth, and requires almost 0 processing on the sender's part, but it would still help when 250,000 slashdotters descend on a site at once. At least his bandwidth won't max out anywhere near as quickly.
I was able to use the site via the Coral Caching system (before it got totally zonked) and it appeared to serve data to me correctly. Am I an idiot? I mean, if you submit a novel (as in uncommon) query to the site via the cache and it responds, that proves it's at least working correctly, right? Might help, but it won't hurt.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
And I have a hard time understanding society's interest in hounding that kid for the rest of his days, especially if no kids even saw the ASCII goatse man.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
You can see it here:
http://www.dashpc.com/map/
It's probably not the wisest thing to do - but it's a proof of concept.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
The University of Chicago is better off without you.
h tml
For those interested, the book "Freakonomics" (in fact written by a University of Chicago economist) does a really good job explaining the socioeconomic reasoning for black crime and crime in general for that matter.
In response to this post, it also has a good description of why people perceive threats as larger than they really are. (i.e. Swimming pools are 100 times more dangerous than guns to children)
I'm hoping you avoided your reasonable admission chances at Harvard which had a minimum of 8 times the forcible sexual assault. Though I couldn't give you accurate percentages for aggr. assault due to the difficulty of dividing by 0
http://www.securityoncampus.org/crimestats/index.
Sorry, slashdot users aren't allowed. You've been too naughty.
I have?
Sorry, slashdot users aren't allowed. You've been too naughty.
This isn't innovative, Sim City had it in 1990.
You mean this ol' thing?
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
IDtenT...spent more time trying to deny us than it takes to just go around. Hmmm.. Cut (Control C) ....1 second
Alt Tab...2 seconds (too many things open)
Paste (Control V) ....1 second
Looking like an idiot in front of 10,000+ viewers for no reason than to look like an idiot... timeless
-1 for misuse of .htaccess
Anyway, I never said that one should wander around and feel safe. I said if one uses common sense, it is entirely possible to be safe in Chicago. Few students live more than a 1/4 mile from UofC, but that doesn't mean they never go out of that 1/4 mile radius. They just do so in a more safe manner such as using public transportation as opposed to walking around. As someone with a fair amount of friends there, I know for a fact they don't sit around living in fear becase of where they go to school.
As for Roger's Park, I know quite a few people there as well, going to Loyola University. They don't live in fear either. And, no, most of us do not live on campus. Again, it's about using common sense. The naive approach is that of the typical suburbanite, thinking that anyone going into the city is in danger for their life. I know a lot of people who came from the suburbs to go to schools such as UofC, Loyola, or DePaul who were told such things. It simply isn't true. Common sense: that's all it takes. Will it prevent ALL crimes? Of course not. Does it enable most people who have the luxery of living above the poverty line the ability to live in the city without constant fear? Definitely.
You know what realtime crime mapping will lead to???
The dawn of SUPER HEROES
This makes we glad to live in a small midwest City (120K). We had one murder last year.
DO NOT DISTURB THE SE
when will we be able to type in someone's name and see where they are in real time?
I put on my robe and wizard hat.
Not related to the topic, but needed if you want to get to the site.
The admin has blocked people coming from slashdot. If you want to get there, you must reload the page or type it into the browser's address field.
Again, the link is not broken, the admin just doesn't like people sucking up his bandwidth.
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
something that is "innovative" is never described that way by anyone involved, to them it was just work.
these maps are cool, but not innovative, innovative would be if google was able to predict the weather month by month on a farily high resolution (current weather systems do predictions for 200 km square blocks.
Check journal for info on Anti-TextBook, an idea by me.
Sorry, slashdot users aren't allowed. You've been too naughty.
(Current Website from the link)
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
It was much more than that. Believe me, I talked to others who had went there, and I got the impression that everyone is depressed an awful lot and because of the bad neighborhood there is nothing to do off campus.
E = m c^3 Don't drink and derive E = m c^3
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/publications/infores/ statutoryrape/handbook/issu.html
Exclusions for rape:
Under current laws, depending upon the State, the age differential may be set at from 2 to 6 years older than the minor. Most often, however, it is set at 3 or 4 years. In the survey, the age differentials reflected these variations.
SearchIRC - Now with live chat directory!
I've read Freakonomics and it doesn't discount what I say at all. The most Freakonomics would say is that it is stupid to worry about being murdered if you live in a normal, middle class neighborhood. It does not say that you shouldn't be worried if you are a nerdy white boy walking through an alley in the worst part of Chicago.
Oh, and those campus crime statistics are irrelevant. I care about the chances of getting mugged while being off-campus, not on-campus.
I'm excited to go to UF anyway because I get to go for free. I don't regret for a minute passing up a university where I not only would be bored out of my mind due to the inability to leave campus, but also have a $120K debt. Maybe graduate school will be different.
E = m c^3 Don't drink and derive E = m c^3
...and get it done to you for free (if you're not picky).
DePaul (Lincoln Park):
139 crimes
30 on person, 102 on property
Of crimes on person, 15 battery, 5 assault, 2 crim sexual assault, and 6 robbery
Loyola (Roger's Park):
136 crimes
44 on person, 79 on property
Of crimes on person, 17 battery, 6 assault, and 6 robbery
University of Chicago (Hyde Park):
163 crimes
49 on person, 91 on property
Of crimes on person, 16 battery, 15 assault, 1 sex offense (but not crim sexual assault), 8 robbery, 1 attempted robbery, and 1 kidnapping
I would hardly call these significant differences. Considering the number of people in a 1 mile radius in Chicago, 19 more crimes on person in a 2 week period is a relatively small number. The Lincoln Park area had 2 rapes to Hyde Park's 0 (albeit, it did have a "sex offense") and most other serious crimes on person were within the same general range, with the exception of Hyde Park's higher degree of assault - the lesser of the two charges between assault and battery. The only thing which truly distinguishes Hyde Park in this time period is 1 kidnapping. A serious crime, yes, but I would say it is evened out by Lincoln Park's 2 rapes.
It's terrible that this crime exists, yes. And it is important to stay safe when in the city, of course. But it is not something that is impossible, and being the victim of a crime doesn't even necessarily have to be probable. If the people I know and I, living in all three of these areas, can spend 4+ years here without being the victims of crime, so can others. Again, it is impossible to rule out being the victim of a crime - sometimes, nothing could have been done to foresee it - but the point is that it is entirely possible to act in such a way to greatly minimize the likelihood.
Right. Foreign, married men _never_ use prostitutes.
...
In Soviet Russia the prostitute uses you.
hmm now that don't seem too bad
My Suburban burns less gasoline than your Prius.