CrimeReports, publishers of the national crime map, announced its popular iPhone app has had more than 100,000 downloads and has been used to complete more than eight million crime searches across North America in the 30 days since its release.
CrimeReports partners with law enforcement agencies to publish their crime data on the National Crime Map, which now includes data from nearly 700 law enforcement agencies across North America. CrimeReports' low cost and quick integration has led to a current sign-up rate of 50 new agencies per month.
"The real credit for our growth goes to our partner agencies, who have opened up their crime data to the public," said Greg Whisenant, founder and CEO of CrimeReports. "Essentially, we're providing an inexpensive, powerful service to law enforcement agencies who already wanted to get this information to the public."
CrimeReports has seen a steady rise in its traffic and users over the last year. CrimeReports currently has more than 100,000 users in the U.S. and Canada who receive daily, weekly, and monthly crime alerts for their neighborhoods.
The CrimeReports Website is free to the public, allowing any citizen, anywhere in the world, access to the site to monitor crime in participating areas across North America. In addition, CrimeReports recently added national sex offender data to the National Crime Map, so users in the U.S. can see sex offender information in their area whether their local law enforcement agency is participating or not.
Currently, CrimeReports' service areas cover more than 20 percent of the U.S. population, mapping more than 10 million crimes last year and include major metropolitan areas like San Francisco, Boston, San Jose, Washington DC, Baltimore, Dallas, Portland, Los Angeles County, and others.
Additionally, more agencies are using CrimeReports to report information to their public constituencies than other popular social media tools such as Twitter.
"The real beneficiary of our service is the general public," says Whisenant. "They have quick, easy access to timely crime information that they didn't before. And law enforcement agencies have a new tool they can use to communicate with citizens and engage them in better crime prevention efforts."
In addition to the Website and iPhone app, CrimeReports has also launched Command Central, an internal law enforcement crime dashboard used to generate crime statistics, monitor trends, and help law enforcement agencies to implement CompStat and accountability management practices.
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