(Jan. 10, 2009, updated w/ reader responses) -- In a development that LB neighborhood advocates have long sought and until now could only imagine, LBPD has added a powerful online data system with interactive maps displaying reported crimes in Long Beach and adjacent areas, sorted by selectable time period (3 days, 7 days, 14 days, 30 days) and showing crime details at a zoomable, detailed neighborhood level.

Display on 1/10/09, 9 p.m. indicating 1/3/09 to 1/10/09 via www.longbeachpd.org linked to crimereports.com

LBReport.com provides access to the data from LBPD's website on a link below.

The zoomable, interactive map display uses data provided by LBPD and the L.A. County Sheriff Dept. from Lakewood and Cerritos.

Readers can drill down to small neighborhood levels, displaying multiple crimes or sorting some out, and including proactive police measures if the user wishes.

We are still in our initial stages of exploring this extremely powerful system. Among things we noticed: the display appears to cap data at the most recent 500 crimes for a selected area and time period. (One way to work around this is to narrow the time window and zoom in for a tighter neighborhood view.)

[update] An LBReport.com reader drew to our attention to the fact that some data are missing. For example, the system shows four murders (CA Penal Code section 187(a)) between 12/11/08 to 1/11/08 (E. Burnett St @ Pine Ave; 2100 block Linden; 900 block E. Wardlow; 2100 block W. Anaheim St)...but not the Jan. 1 double-homicide in the 1800 block of Gardenia Ave. [end update]

Let us know if you spot other glitches in the system.

To access the interactive map from LBPD's website, click here.

The system uses an easy to apply color-coded legend...and a mouse click displays the specific crime/police response. The system provides details using CA Penal Code sections (e.g.: CA Penal Code section 211 for armed robbery; 459 for burglary; 487 for grand theft; 187 for homicide, etc.) Readers unfamiliar with this "policespeak" can decode it by clicking on the CA legislature's Penal Code Table of Contents (listing sections by number), click here.

LBPD says on its website that the system is provided by CrimeReports.com, an online mapping and analysis service provided by Public Engines, Inc. "CrimeReports.com provides software and services to law enforcement agencies to improve collaboration between the police and members of the local community. Data from CrimeReports.com can be reviewed and used to improve community safety. Members of the community are encouraged to continue partnering and problem-solving with the Long Beach Police Department while using CrimeReports.com data toward shared police-community goals," LBPD's website says.

As previously reported by LBReport.com, the City of L.A. (and some other CA cities, including Oakland) have had such systems for a while...but this appears to be a first for LB.

Until now, crime data had been reported in detail using "reporting districts," which provided useful small neighborhood level data but required using eye-glazing tables of data alongside an unwieldy map to correlate the tabular numbers with geographic areas, not impossible but difficult.

LBReport.com is interested in knowing our readers' reaction to this online data after they use it. Let us know at mail@LBReport.com; it's not necessary to include your name unless you want to, but do let us know your general part of town (major cross-streets are fine) and let us know if it's OK for us to publish your reactions.

[From Lakewood Accountability Action Group website www.laag.us]

Leave it to the City of Lakewood to make sure its citizens are the last to know about new developments that really affect them. We noticed over on www.LBReport.com that LBPD unveiled a third party crime stats website that looks pretty good so far. It is called CrimeReports.com. Users can log in to receive customized crime reports and set up an auto emailed report telling them crimes that have been reported with a certain distance from their selected address. Clearly it took some real private sector brains and capital to put this together using raw data supplied by a number of local agencies, including LASD and LBPD. LAAG has been requesting this type of site from the city for some time. It looks like this was a joint effort by multiple cities and agencies but for some unknown reason Lakewood did not want to tell its residents about the service. Nothing on Lakewood's website as of today nor any emails from the city on this new site...

[For LAAG's full dispatch, click here.]

It is exciting to have the access to this information. If all residents used this resource, it would heighten awareness and help to reduce crime!...

GREAT!

prefers name withheld
ELB area Willow-Spring, Clark-Bellflower

Thanks for posting that page! I am going to look up a lot of stuff on that page now...

prefers name withheld
Bixby Knolls area

I live in East Long Beach. Major intersections are South Greenway & Bixby Village Drive, south of the VA and south of CSULB. I appreciate knowing where crime is occurring, and what type of crime.

s/ M.C.

Thank you, LBReport.com, for telling us about this.

prefers name withheld
NLB (near Houghton Park)

Good! It's about time.

prefers name withheld
South Wrigley

Thank you for the information. God help the people in some parts of our city.

prefers name withheld
ELB (Spring/Palo Verde area)