Frequently Asked Questions

What is Public Engines?
Public Engines provides Web-based Software as a Service (SaaS) products to help government agencies manage and control the sharing of data directly with local communities. Public Engines provides a simple, affordable, effective solution for communicating directly with community members within minutes via the Internet and email. Public Engines' direct to community communication products enhance existing methods of communicating time-sensitive and sometimes critical information to local communities with targeted, in depth communications. CrimeReports.com is provided by Public Engines. Back to the top.

What is CrimeReports.com?
CrimeReports.com provides law enforcement agencies with an affordable and easy-to-use Web-based service for managing and controlling the sharing of crime data with the public, in near real-time. Community members can then access their neighborhood crime information for free, empowering them to make informed decisions to help improve the safety of their families, friends, property and the community at large. Back to the top.

Why we created this site:
CrimeReports.com was created to help law enforcement agencies put crime data in the hands of those who care about it most—citizens. While crime statistics in a specific city may be available, they may not be accessible. CrimeReports.com standardizes the way law enforcement agencies communicate crime data to the public, down to the specific neighborhood or block they live on. Back to the top.

What is a crime report?
When law enforcement officers respond to a crime, a report is made and kept on file for future reference. Crime reports are public records. CrimeReports.com lets law enforcement agencies manage which types of crime reports (and which details on a report) are shown to the public. Back to the top.

Where does the report data come from?
Law enforcement agencies have ultimate control over the data they report to the public through CrimeReports.com. In most cases CrimeReports.com integrates with an agency’s RMS or CAD system through a simple ODBC connection. Back to the top.

How often is the data updated?
Law enforcement agencies control how often CrimeReports.com data is automatically updated. Most agencies choose to update the data daily. Back to the top.

How does CrimeReports.com work?
Participating law enforcement agencies publish local crime incident data in near real-time to CrimeReports.com, converting raw crime data into easily accessible, actionable information for community members. Back to the top.

How do law enforcement agencies transfer data to CrimeReports.com?
CrimeReports.com uses the Global Justice XML Data Model (Global JXDM), effectively "receiving" data from the agency through a secure connection. To create the secure connection from the RMS/CAD system, we developed the CrimeReports Publisher ("The Publisher"), which integrates with all RMS/CAD systems. The Publisher ensures that the management and control of all RMS/CAD data remains in the hands of the law enforcement agency at all times. Using the Publisher, the agency configures the connection and defines the parameters for the information that they want to share. The agency also schedules a specific time to publish the data, and the data is published to the CrimeReports.com Web site. Back to the top.

How can users access crime information for their areas of interest?
CrimeReports.com is a community-facing Web application, and as such, emphasizes the user experience. A CrimeReports.com user simply enters an address of interest (home, office, school, etc.) and clicks on "Get Report" to see criminal activity in a given area on an easy-to-use map interface. The CrimeReports.com Web application also integrates data from multiple agencies into a single interface and offers automated, location-based alerting services. Back to the top.

How many police departments have signed up?
There are law enforcement agencies of all sizes from across the country actively providing crime data on CrimeReports.com. These departments serve local populations ranging from 5,000 to more than 1 million residents, including Washington, D.C.; San Jose, California; Columbus, Ohio, and Reno, Nevada.

We are currently working with many more law enforcement agencies throughout the country to publish their data. We recently signed an agreement with the State of Utah to provide the CrimeReports.com service to all law enforcement agencies in the State. Back to the top.

How do you gather crime data?
We partner with local law enforcement agencies, enabling these agencies to manage and publish crime information for their jurisdictions. We also pull data from local, state and federal agencies' sources to provide public information to communities throughout the United States, including the Sex Offender Registry in many states. We feel that this type of information should be available to everyone in an easy-to-use, convenient location. Back to the top.

What information is available?
CrimeReports enables participating law enforcement agencies to manage and control their own data and determine what information they deem appropriate to share with the public. However, we categorize crime incidents into 15 general crime type categories and 21 subcategories of crime and calls for service activity, including:

  • Assault: Assault, Assault w/ Deadly Weapon
  • Burglary
  • Homicide
  • Proactive Policing: Community Policing, Pedestrian Stop, Vehicle Stop
  • Property Crime: Property Crime, Property Crime Commercial, Property Crime Residential
  • Quality of Life: Disorder, Liquor, Narcotics
  • Registered Sex Offenders
  • Robbery (Violent)
  • Sex Offense: Rape, Other Sexual Offense
  • Theft
  • Traffic
  • Vehicle Burglary
  • Vehicle Recovery
  • Vehicle Theft
  • Other: Alarm, Arson, Death, Family Offense, Kidnapping, Missing Person, Weapons Offense, Other

Each of these terms is searchable on its own, allowing the user to determine what type of criminal activity they would like to be informed of, as long as the law enforcement agency is providing that information to community members. Back to the top.

How do you keep victim information private?
Law enforcement agencies remove victim identification as part of the data publishing process. In addition, we help protect victim identities by converting the exact street addresses to the "block level". For example, the address "1486 Lincoln Avenue" would be mapped and displayed as "1400 block of Lincoln Avenue". Back to the top.

Does the system help reduce crime?
CrimeReports helps community members understand their surroundings and make informed decisions to protect themselves. While it is too early to determine whether CrimeReports.com actually reduces crime, it helps raise awareness and create stronger community policing programs that improve the connection between law enforcement and the public. Back to the top.

Why should community members use CrimeReports.com?
Community members can access neighborhood crime data in near-real time, empowering them to make informed decisions to avoid becoming victims and to prevent and reduce crime.

"CrimeReports.com will prove particularly valuable to those in the community who want to stay informed about what is going on in their neighborhoods, with again, the hope that they will work with us [the police department] to address these issues." - Chief Rob Davis, San Jose Police Department. Back to the top.

Is it free to join?
CrimeReports is free to the public, and includes automated email crime alerts. Law enforcement agencies can sign up for a nominal monthly subscription fee in order to publish any and all crime and call data they wish to share. Fees range from $49 per month to $199 per month, depending on the population residing in the agency's jurisdiction. Back to the top.

How do community members receive information about criminal activity in their neighborhoods?
Community members can visit www.CrimeReports.com any time to view crime incident reports for any participating jurisdiction. Based on the type of data the agency chooses to make available, community members can also sign up to receive daily, weekly or monthly email alerts regarding criminal activity and police dispatch calls for service in their neighborhoods. The majority of crime and call incident records are available indefinitely on CrimeReports.com. Back to the top.

How do community members sign up to receive email crime alerts?
Community members can sign up for the service by clicking here. The only information users need to create an account are a valid address and an email address. Back to the top.

How often do users find out what is happening?
Most law enforcement agencies publish their crime and call data to CrimeReports.com in near real-time, at least once every 24 hours. Community members receive email crime alerts daily, weekly or monthly, as they choose, for crime incidents occurring near their chosen location, such as a home or a business. Back to the top.

What other products/service does CrimeReports.com offer?
We are currently working on several new and exciting products that support law enforcement and community policing objectives to engage communities to prevent and reduce crime. The CrimeReports law enforcement advisory panel, made up of several law enforcement officials, are testing and providing feedback on these new products to ensure that they are useful and effective for law enforcement and community members. These new products will be announced to the public in the near future. Back to the top.





Ask your local law enforcement agency to participate by using the automated request letter below. The letter will be personalized with your name.

Name of city or police department:

Here is the email letter the Chief / Sheriff will receive:

Dear Chief / Sheriff,

I respectfully request that [ name of city or police department ] participate in CrimeReports.com, a free service that enables law enforcement to communicate directly with local citizens. You can learn more here:

http://www.crimereports.com

I have joined Crimereports.com in the hopes that you will begin participating soon. I appreciate your willingness to consider this request. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Your name:
Your email address:

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