Crime Statistics Accuracy Review
Donation protected
Recently, the quiet neighborhood of North Hills Estates discovered that irregardless of the lack of murders and rapes (that anyone had heard of), the realtor webpage for their neighborhood reported their crime statistics as being worse than all of Harris County (Houston area) in these two categories. The Harris County Sheriff's Office and their precinct's Constable's Office provides a database called crimereports.com as being the best resource for information.
But problems occurred. A frightening incident involving armed robbery, the first that anyone knew about in the neighborhood was reported with some weeks delay. Then in a county park adjacent to the neighborhood, a non-local individual was found with a gunshot wound (and later died). Some months later, this incident still did not make it into the official database.
In support of the local water control and improvement district (WCID 99), I brought my knowledge of local government and database infrustructure (as Treasurer of Referee PAC) to look into the problem. After discussing this in detail with the various police organizations, I drafted an open records request for one of WCID 99s board members in order to get a measure on the accuracy and with time of crimereports.com.
While the issues for North Hills Estates are in the initial stages of being addressed. There are further questions worth investigating. How do police patrols and cameras impact the statistics (once known)?
The $100 in this campaign will cover the cost of the open records requests for an identified neighborhood with a police patrol and cameras. The analysis of the open records for before/after effects will likely take time and cost ~$300. If this gofundme campaign is supported, a secondary request will be made for the latter amount.
But problems occurred. A frightening incident involving armed robbery, the first that anyone knew about in the neighborhood was reported with some weeks delay. Then in a county park adjacent to the neighborhood, a non-local individual was found with a gunshot wound (and later died). Some months later, this incident still did not make it into the official database.
In support of the local water control and improvement district (WCID 99), I brought my knowledge of local government and database infrustructure (as Treasurer of Referee PAC) to look into the problem. After discussing this in detail with the various police organizations, I drafted an open records request for one of WCID 99s board members in order to get a measure on the accuracy and with time of crimereports.com.
While the issues for North Hills Estates are in the initial stages of being addressed. There are further questions worth investigating. How do police patrols and cameras impact the statistics (once known)?
The $100 in this campaign will cover the cost of the open records requests for an identified neighborhood with a police patrol and cameras. The analysis of the open records for before/after effects will likely take time and cost ~$300. If this gofundme campaign is supported, a secondary request will be made for the latter amount.
Organizer
Elizabeth Jensen
Organizer
Spring, TX