Pinpoint Crime in Mount Vernon with New Police Mapping Tool

Fairfax County has a new online crime-mapping tool, Police Events, that residents can use to pinpoint crime in their neighborhoods as recent as the day before.

To use the system, you go online to Police Events, where you can choose or plug in a Location, Date Range and Event Types (types of crimes). Locations can be specific, such as an address, a school or a ZIP code. There are 16 different types of crimes to choose from (including peeping incidents, noise violations and burglaries or you can just select “all”). You can choose a date or a date range.

An online discussion on the Fairfax County Police Facebook page about the new tool mentions that Google Chrome might be the best browser to use. The information appears to be as up to date as the previous day.

Here’s an excerpt from Government Technology, about the new program:

In Fairfax County, Va., the police department already has opened up its data to residents -- with the new and improved Police Events Application, citizens can obtain real-time, mobile access to neighborhood disturbances, thefts, drug or sex offenses, and more. And the county has taken its commitment to open government a step further -- now, hundreds of new police service calls are immediately integrated into the system daily from a variety of sources, allowing the county to cut back on time spent gathering data and greatly reducing the need for support calls.

PHOTO: Screen shot of Police Events page, Fairfax County