Point or Polygon

Following from my post yesterday in which I introduced the subjects of privacy and purpose. I will provide two links to illustrate the different approaches to these considerations. The first is from London and the second is from Los Angeles. Both maps are police generated for the public.

http://maps.met.police.uk/
http://www.lapdcrimemaps.org/

The London map is based on polygons to protect privacy, the LA map is based on points with information about time and place.

The LA map provides far more information which the viewer can use to be safer. In my view the policing purpose of public safety and crime prevention has been wrongly been superceded by privacy in London.

I will of course return to this subject because there is much more to be said.

Crime, fear and mapping

View Richmond Homicide Map 2009 in a larger map



I was originally attracted to this map through this link;

http://richmondconfidential.org/2009/11/30/crime-overlays-poverty/

This simplistic analysis actually raises far more questions than answers but it got me hooked for half an hour wondering what sort of place Richmond California is. As an outsider it makes me feel that Richmond is a dangerous place. But is it actually? I have no point of reference. To a large extent I am a web voyeur, the serious incidents do not affect me in my everyday life. What is important is how does it affect the people in Richmond. Does it increase their fear of crime, does it make them avoid certain places, does highlight a problem that needs fixing, does it reassure people because it shows that people like them are not usually victims?

This type of information being in the public domain, though challenging, provides impetus for the authorities to address the problem and individuals to decide how they and the ones they care for do not become victims. The outcomes should be positive but if not managed by the police correctly can lead to further segregation, more guns and a fortress mentality.

The first thing to say about this map is that appears to be created by a journalist rather than the police. I think it conveys a powerful message of a serious problem with guns in Richmond California, which if you pan the map out is just north of Berkeley and San Francisco.