PHL Crime Mapper: use this tool to map serious crimes in any part of the city

PHL Crime Mapper wins points for simplicity: it is exactly what it sounds like. Use the tool to map crime in any part of the city.

The app, one of the first we’ve seen that uses the city’s newly liberated crime data, is a side project of Dave Walk, a GIS staffer at the city’s Office of Innovation and Technology. (The side project status means it’s not affiliated with the city at all.) On the web version of the app, you can view crimes that happened in a specific area and timeframe. The mobile version uses your phone’s GPS and shows you crimes nearby that occurred in the last month.

Use the map here.

Walk, who lives in Bella Vista, said the app took him about three weeks to build, mostly working on it during the weekends. It’s still a work in progress, he said. In the next version, he plans to include an option to subscribe to crime alerts for specific areas (via email and possibly SMS, he said). Send him feedback via Twitter at @ddw17.