BALTIMORE– SpotCrime – the most comprehensive online source for crime data – has surpassed one million subscribers, making the Baltimore-based company the largest crime alerting system in the U.S. and most visited crime mapping site in the world.
“Our sole intent is to make all relevant crime information available to the public, taking full advantage of the Internet to allow this data to be shared and ultimately driving both greater awareness and new measures that will lead to a reduction in crime.”
An independent, open data company, SpotCrime now sends its subscribers more than 200 million crime alert emails annually, while over 40 million people interact with the crime data the company generates on a monthly basis.
Founder and President Colin Drane attributes SpotCrime’s rapid growth to the fact that it is the only independent, open data company that is self-supporting.
“SpotCrime does not take any outside funding and does not charge police departments or any other organizations for the information we provide,” Drane says. “Our sole intent is to make all relevant crime information available to the public, taking full advantage of the Internet to allow this data to be shared and ultimately driving both greater awareness and new measures that will lead to a reduction in crime.”
Drane adds that the open data distributed by SpotCrime creates a level of transparency with citizens and public officials that increases both trust and accountability. “Our goal is to help the process on how public resources are allocated,” he explains. “SpotCrime has always been a strong proponent of open access to data. The easier it is for a community to access and share crime data, the higher the chance that community will be proactive in the fight against crime.”
“With continued subscriber growth, SpotCrime’s website and other applications now have a proven, eight-year track record of effectively engaging the public with timely, relevant crime information, all of which ultimately will improve the odds that a community will be instrumental in the fight against crime,” Drane concludes.
For more information about SpotCrime, visit the company’s website at www.spotcrime.com.