New Online Interactive Dashboards To Disclose Crime Data For Howard County

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — To help keep the public informed of crime in the Howard County community, officials are launching two online interactive dashboards that share information about crime reports and traffic stops.

“It’s important to make Howard County’s crime and traffic data readily available to our communities,” said Howard County Police Chief Gregory Der. “We want residents to have easy access to information without barriers or hurdles. This new online system will help ensure users can see the police department’s most recently available information.”

The crime reports dashboard offers searchable options by types of crime, zip codes, timeframes, police beats and Columbia villages, officials said. Users can query the crime report data most relevant or important to their areas, in various formats. The dashboard includes crime reports starting in 2022 when the FBI revised its mandatory uniform crime reporting procedures.

“This was an ideal time to launch this new program,” Der said. “When the federal crime reporting requirements were updated, we thought it was a great opportunity to present the new data in an improved way.”

In addition to the crime data, the police department is launching a separate dashboard addressing traffic stops, beginning with 2023 data and updating regularly, officials noted.

“Howard County is home to the safest city in Maryland and one of the safest cities in America because of our collective efforts to improve and expand our public safety resources,” said Howard County Executive Calvin Ball. “With this new dashboard, we are increasing our efforts to be even more data-informed, people-driven. This effort underscores the benefits of modern technology to ensure all our residents are not only safe, but feel safe.”

The traffic stop dashboard includes certain types of violations determined by the state of Maryland, called “reportable stops.” These are interactions with drivers in which factors like race, gender, searches, citations and reason for stop can be obtained. By Maryland law, “reportable traffic stops” do not include checkpoints or roadblocks; radar or laser stops; or the use of license plate reader technology, officials stated.

Users can visit the dashboards at Crime Reports and Reportable Traffic Stops.