Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you might want to know about how CityCrimeMap works, where the data comes from, and how to get more out of it.
Is CityCrimeMap free to use?
Yes. Every map, every city, every incident. There is no paywall, no login, and no app to install. If you want free real-time email alerts for a specific address, sign up at SpotCrime.
Where does the crime data come from?
Directly from each city's official open-data portal (typically Socrata, ArcGIS, or CKAN). We do not scrape. The dataset for every city is linked at the top of that city's page so you can verify.
How current is the data?
It depends on the city. Some portals publish incidents within 24 hours; others lag a week or more. Each city page displays the exact window ("last N days") being shown. For faster notifications, use SpotCrime alerts.
Why don't you show every crime in my city?
We only display what the city publishes. Some categories (like domestic violence and sex crimes involving minors) are intentionally excluded by the police department for victim privacy. That's a policy decision by the city, not by us.
Why is my neighborhood empty on the map?
Two possibilities. First, no incidents were reported in that area during the current window — that's a good thing. Second, the incident was reported but the city couldn't geocode it (missing or bad address). We show a count of unlocated incidents on each city page when that happens.
How do you classify offenses across different cities?
We normalize each city's offense codes into eight consistent categories: Shooting, Robbery, Assault, Burglary, Theft, Arson, Vandalism, and Arrest. Full definitions are on the About page. This lets you compare across cities apples-to-apples.
Can I get crime alerts for my address?
Yes — through SpotCrime, which offers free daily email alerts for any US address nationwide. Every city page on CityCrimeMap has a direct sign-up link.
Do you cover the whole country?
Not yet. We start with cities whose open-data feeds are current, populated, and have geocoded incidents. See the About page for the current list. New cities are added regularly. If your city isn't listed, SpotCrime covers thousands of US cities.
Do you sell my data or track me?
No. We use Google Analytics for basic traffic reporting with anonymized IPs. We don't sell data, don't run ads, and don't have a login system that could collect PII.
Is this affiliated with any police department?
No. CityCrimeMap is an independent public-interest project. We consume data that police departments have chosen to publish openly, but we're not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by any law-enforcement agency.
Can I embed one of these maps on my site?
Not yet as a first-class embed, but every city page is public and shareable. Deep-link freely — the URLs are stable (e.g. citycrimemap.us/chicago). If you want a real embed or API, open an issue on the tidycop GitHub repo.
How is this different from CrimeMapping.com and Community Crime Map?
Both of those are single-page apps whose content is mostly invisible to search engines and to screen readers. CityCrimeMap is fully static HTML — every city has its own crawlable page with real data. It's also open source, built on the free tidycop library, so anyone can inspect exactly how a city's data flows in.