Project - Project Aims To Help Readers Protect Themselves Against Crime

By - Lisa Carricaburu

Project

Most people are not directly affected by the crime they read about at sltrib.com or in The Salt Lake Tribune — murder, sexual assault, armed robbery, etc.

But that doesn’t mean crime never touches our lives. Who among us has never had personal items stolen from a car or yard, or awakened to find a mailbox bashed in or graffiti scrawled on a wall?

A Tribune project debuting Sunday seeks to supply readers with better information about lesser but more frequent crimes such as these. With Sunday’s story "Beware SLC’s car break-in hot spots," by crime reporter Janelle Stecklein, we begin a series of occasional stories that rely on crime data analysis and mapping to demonstrate where particular crimes are most prevalent to increase your awareness — and ours.

The maps reveal trends and in some cases may debunk long-held stereotypes about crime, says Elizabeth Neff, the news editor overseeing the project.

"We hope it’s also useful for law enforcement considering how and where to deploy resources, and for residents who want to work with police on crime prevention," she says.

The project began with a database obtained through an open records request of all verified crimes handled by Salt Lake City police in 2011. Crime data from neighboring cities is being requested and also will be analyzed as part of this effort.

For Sunday’s story, computer-assisted reporting editor Tony Semerad and new media content editor Scott Sherman relied on police offense codes, dates and descriptions, as well as latitudes and longitudes for where crimes occurred, to create an interactive map that shows where the 3,600 car burglaries committed in Salt Lake City last year were most prevalent.

The static map you see in Sunday’s print edition clearly shows the worst spots for car burglary were in what officials refer to as the Depot District, the poorly lit, warehouse-heavy area where parking is free west of The Gateway shopping mall and near other entertainment venues and clubs.

At sltrib.com, you may click on the interactive map to search for specifics about car burglaries in the places you frequent most — places you live, work, shop, etc.

"One of the exciting things about mapping is the ability it gives readers to go beyond the reporting we’ve done and examine the data for themselves in any area they’re interested in," Neff says.

In addition to being available at sltrib.com, the car burglaries map and others to come in the series will be accessible at utahsright.com, The Tribune website that serves as a repository for searchable public records obtained by our staff using the Government Records Access and Management Act.

As a police officer says in today’s story, there are ways to inoculate yourself against crime.

 Category - Project

Source - http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54267675-78/crime-com-car-sltrib.html.csp