5 Ways of Visualizing Crime in Philly

Back in December, the city of Philadelphia published its first really major municipal dataset, a record of all “Part I” crimes in the city (these are the really bad ones: homicides, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults and thefts) dating back to Jan. 1, 2006. Each incident is tagged to a location in the city, making it possible to map assaults across the years, or vehicle thefts near your home address within the last 30 days.

Not surprisingly, in the short time since the city released this trove, a number of developers have already repackaged it. Nearly every week, says Mark Headd, Philadelphia’s chief data officer, the city has stumbled across some new application of the material created by local residents. “It’s really interesting when you put valuable data out there, data that resonates with people – and this clearly does, and we make it really, really easy to use," Headd says. "It’s amazing what pops up."