CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — CMPD has come out with a new data mapping tool for reported incidents. Previously it was using crimemapping.com, a national third-party website, but its contract with CMPD ended in September.

The new application, CMPD CrimeMapper, was developed internally to improve accuracy and lower costs. According to CMPD, incident data is uploaded within approximately 24 hours.

From CMPD regarding the crime mapping tool –

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department understands the importance of being able to provide data to it’s citizens in an effort to be transparent and make informed decisions. Utilizing the Charlotte Open Data Portal, CMPD publishes data related reported incidents that contains locational attributes allowing citizens to plot the locations on a map. We realize however, that for most this would not be an easy endeavor. In an effort to allow citizens the opportunity to see and interact with the data, CMPD has developed a new Public Crime Mapping Application (CrimeMapper). This application will allow citizens to visualize reported incidents over the past six months, for a specific location or user defined boundary. Users can also visualize the information in charts or print out the results in a report. If users are interested in being alerted when an incident occurs in the area, they even have the ability to set up email alerts to automatically send the new information. We hope that this new application will provide citizens the information necessary to stay informed as to the issues that are occurring in the areas that are important to them. The application can be found on the CMPD website under the ePolicing Resources tab and then clicking on the Crime Mapping banner