What is this new wonder? Why it's the Lehigh Valley Crime Map.
Now, instead of simply reading about the instances of mayhem and violence in our streets, we can actually plot them to scale and in color. There's lots of other cool features, like being able to plug in your own address to see how close the robberies, burglaries, and murders are to your home or your children's school.
The introductory paragraph at the top of the page says, "About this page: This map includes incidents from The Morning Call's police news page and other news reports; it is not intended to be a comprehensive listing of crimes that have taken place. Click here for crime statistics. Incident locations are approximate.
There is also a disclaimer that states: "Incident descriptions such as "Assault" and "Burglary" are used only to broadly classify the nature of the event as described by police but do not indicate guilt.
"
In it's current configuration, as of tonight, when you roll your mouse over Allentown, a little pop-up window tells you that there are 38 incidents on file in the past week. Pity poor Bethlehem and Easton who have only 6 incidents each. I'll bet they don't get near as many people looking at their maps.
Ain't technology grand?
Posts
14 comments:
60 Incidents within 3 miles of my home. And the 2 I mentioned to you in an earlier post are not on the map. This is really disheartening.
Here's more comfort food for the soul:
The Pa. State Police Megan's Law Lookup Website
Well, isn't this something. Considering we've heard of crimes only from friends and neighbors and not the Call. Here's another little item to ponder.
If I were a Call Internet advertiser, I'd sure be cautious
with my budget dollars these days as comment entries per article seems dramatically down in numbers since the Call initiated online reader registration requirements. Some articles have only two comments; some none.
Before...50 to 100. So how do advertisers now count how many readers are actually seeing their ads?
What you really could do is greet the crimdinals as they come up the street. Imagine their surprise.
Bill,
I think the reason those two incidents aren't on the map is because they occurred longer than a week ago.
My understanding is that the map represents only the past seven days.
But oh my, 60 incidents that close to your home. Anyone would be disheartened.
Glenn,
I used that a couple of months ago and was speechless at the number of registered offenders there are in the area.
It almost makes one wish that ignorance really was bliss, but in this day and age, ignorance is an invitation to tragedy.
Anon 9:24
Having been in the ad business for a number of years I think I can say that the people who were posting those often bigoted and vile comments on the former Topix Forum were not who the Call's advertisers were targeting.
Requiring registration to leave a comment was long overdue.
The way advertisers should be judging their results is by how many customers they have, not by how many comments were posted.
Anon 9:25,
Maybe that will be next. Technology will advance to the point where we can see live action shots and know when they're headed in our direction.
Think what the future holds.
Pamela Varkony said..., "Technology will advance to the point.."
Maybe stream all the city cameras online. A 1,000 eyes observing
Sort of like all those LIVE streaming cams from NYC Times Square
Pamela Varkony said...
Anon 9:24
Having been in the ad business for a number of years I think I can say that the people who were posting those often bigoted and vile comments on the former Topix Forum were not who the Call's advertisers were targeting.
Requiring registration to leave a comment was long overdue.
The way advertisers should be judging their results is by how many customers they have, not by how many comments were posted.
November 11, 2009 10:35 AM
Valid Feedback.
Pam -
Something must be wrong.
The Mayor assured voters that crime was down and (as usual) the Pawlowski apologists confirmed that the city is moving forward.
Doesn't this new web site recognize the progress that is occurring in the city?
Wow! The Megan's Law website shows that A-town is a haven for sex offenders. Interesting, but tragic....
Alfonso Todd
Amazing how many perverts there are in the 18104 and 18106 zip codes. I always thought the west end was a nice safe place.
A couple of points:
1. This feature is not new. It has been around for over a year
2. This feature is not accurate. In the past, it has listed Whitehall crime under the Allentown circle.
3. The Megan Law website lists sex offenders. One of the reason so many live in Allentown is because that is where the prison is.
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