Crime Data Records: An Austinite Makes them Accessible

Crime Data Records can be helpful for civilians trying to keep their neighborhoods safe.  IT Analyst and Austinite Jack Darby created krimelabb.com after he was the victim of break-ins two days in a row.  His goal is to give residents the tools they need to keep crime out of their communities, Statesman.com reports.

Darby began by looking at the crime in his own neighborhood, Cherrywod, but it wasn't too long before he realized it would be easy to do the same for the entire city.  He began by going through police records to make an electronic digest of crime statistics.  His website currently contains nearly 2 million arrest and incident reports, mug shots and case files and allows neighbors to follow crime in their area.

The searches are free because it is important to Darby to help residents see what crime is having in their areas so they can report it and work with the police to eradicate it.  His admittedly lofty goal is to "make Austin the safest city in the nation" by giving the community the tools they need to be the Austin Police Department's eyes and ears.

Darby's newest project is tracking crime around AISD school campuses to find out whether there is a relationship between crime and low-performing schools.  His overall goal is to prevent crime around our houses and apartments in the first place.