postacrime.com - stopping crime online.

Welcome Mashable Readers...

2008-04-08T16:21:00.000-07:00

We wanted to welcome visitors from Mashable.com to PostaCrime, and we hope that you find our website to be a useful tool. We welcome any feedback that you may have to admin at postacrime.com.

For those of you who want to read the article, you can find it here http://mashable.com/2008/04/08/postacrime/

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While you are at it be sure to check out MyAlarmMonitoring.com for $12.95 monthly alarm monitoring. Have a Blackberry? Tired of Spam Calls? Download Call Control, the super Blacklist Application for Blackberry.

100,000 crimes and counting!

2008-02-19T16:15:00.001-08:00

This month we passed a major milestone, we now have well over 100,000 crimes in our database from all over the United States. And guess what? We're not slowing down either.

We have several partnerships with police departments currently in the works and plan to continue to roll out POSTACRIME to law enforcement, businesses, and people like you all across the country. If you haven't done so already, make sure and invite your police department to participate in the POSTACRIME network by filling out this form. Our service is completely free for the departments, why wouldn't they participate?

Keep posting, keep participating, and we'll promise to keep rolling our more information, more features, and continue to make POSTACRIME a better tool for you.

Loss Prevention for Small Business

2008-02-02T11:46:00.000-08:00

Joe Hughes over at www.joesbunker.net (great loss prevention resource) has published an eBook outlining several strategies that small business owners can use to reduce losses and increase their bottom line and it offering it as a free download for a limited time. His advice could save you thousands, so download it quickly before he decides to start charging for it!

Interesting strategies that he has included in his book:

Customer Service – The Number One Way To Prevent Losses
Control Your Exits
Inspect What You Expect
Network With Other Retailers

Mr. Hughes notes PostaCrime.com as a great way for small business owners to network and share information about theft and crime in their stores, "every small business should be using this service, and advertising it to their customers."

Invite your local police department!

2008-01-30T13:53:00.001-08:00

In addition to users posting crimes, PostaCrime also relies on local police department report information to populate our database. Many of you have emailed us asking us to send an invitation to your local police departments asking them to participate in PostaCrime.com, which has been successful (Thank you!). We're working with several as we speak to begin providing data.

We've created a simple form making this process a bit more automated, we invite you to fill it out and we'll contact your local departments and get them involved. The result is a win win, the department is able to communicate information to the citizens they represent at no cost and you benefit by having the information made available to you!

Did you know that MyAlarmMonitoring.com has alarm monitoring for $12.95 monthly? Have a Blackberry and are you tired of telemarketing calls? Download Call Control, the super Blacklist Application for Blackberry.

PostaCrime.com Google Mapplet Released

2008-01-19T13:19:00.000-08:00

It's official, we've released the PostaCrime.com mapplet for Google Maps. After following the steps below to add the PAC mapplet to your Google Maps, you can type in any zip code or address and see the crime results within the Google Map interface. You can also couple the PAC crime results with other useful mapplets like:

Web Cams

Real Estate (Check the neighborhood for crime before you buy)

Gas Prices

Here's how to add the PostaCrime mapplet into your Google Maps account:

Log into your Google account.
Go to Google Maps and click on the My Maps tab.
Then click browse the directory.
Type in Crime in the search box and you'll see the PostaCrime.com mapplet.
Click on PostaCrime.com.
Click Add it to Maps.
You have now successfully added the PostaCrime mapplet to your Google maps. You can now search for crime by typing in an address or zip code and see the results on the left hand side and on the Google map.

If you type a zip code and nothing comes up, don't worry, we don't have information in our database yet for that location. In addition to you and our users uploading crime information, we're working with Police Departments to add their information to PostaCrime.com. If you want to help us please send a letter or email to your local police department and ask them to participate in PostaCrime.com!

Have fun with the mapplet!

Postacrime and Jamie Colby of Fox News

2007-10-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

Wow. The last few weeks have seemed like a blur. First, the Seattle Times did a story on us. That resulted in Fox National News calling us to appear on the show Fox Online on Saturday morning hosted by Jamie Colby. I drew the short straw and was elected the one to be interviewed by Jamie. Actually I wanted to do the interview because I love talking about Postacrime. It is only through generating such attention that we will achieve our objective of being the largest crime prevention related site on the Internet.

Doing a national interview was exciting as well as nerve wracking. The people at the Fox Studio were extremely nice and supportive. The day started with me meeting up with Krista Koster, a PR rep who is a friend of fellow Co-founder, Ben Sharpe. She generously donated her time to assist me in my preparations in addition to being our representative with Fox. She was extremely helpful and it put me at ease for her to interact with the producer so there would be no surprises. Getting my makeup on was painless and I had a great view of Lake Union from the 30th floor. After makeup, I took a seat and got wired up. There was a large background mural showing the Seattle skyline. There was a TV monitor in front of me below the camera that I was able to look at while I was being interviewed. They informed me that I would hear Jamie in my earpiece but that there would be a two second delay between what I saw on the floor monitor and what I heard in my ear. That was a bit unnerving because this was "live" and there was no chance to edit or redo it if I screwed up. The floor monitor was very distracting so I just sat there looking into a camera listening to Jamie and trying to do my best to explain what we're trying to accomplish with Postacrime to a national TV audience.

All in all it was a blast and something I hope to repeat many times in the future. We are very grateful to Fox News and Jamie Colby for the exposure.

Postacrime on Fox News

2007-10-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits of being in a major paper is you get lots of interested and interesting readers. We had one especially interested reader: Jamie Colby. If you're familiar with Fox News, you'll know that Jamie is the host of Fox Online. A show "where the news meets the net."
So, we got a call from the producer who wanted to put Postacrime on Fox Online. We put David Stone on there to talk with Jamie. They had also invited Officer Grannis of the Bellevue Police Department. Officer Grannis raised some valid points, and I think David did a good job addressing them. Please remember this: If you're the victim of a crime, please please please report it to the proper authorities first.
David did an awesome job on the show and really conveyed what we're trying to accomplish with the site. I'm going to see if I can convince David to write about what its like to be on national television. I'm also going to see if I can find a video of the interview so I can post it here, check back.

-- Edit by Adam --
I found the clip on YouTube

Postacrime.com in the Seattle Times

2007-10-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

We've just wrapped a really exciting week: we've had two definite major events (and we'll have two blog posts)
The first thing is that Postacrime was written up in the Seattle Times. This was really exciting for us because it involved some new stuff for all of us:

The coolest thing that happened was the 30 minute photo shoot for the picture in the paper. Erika took about 200 pictures. And I know I speak for all of us... we really like the picture that got published in the newspaper.
We actually heard someone who wasn't so keen on our little idea. (read the article, and you'll see)
We found out that our site can handle a decent amount of traffic. We had our biggest day ever: 1400 unique visitors

The cool thing about Postacrime being written about the Seattle Times, is that it has a pretty large readership... so we've been getting a pretty good attention from all over the US.

New Cities Added to POSTACRIME

2007-08-09T17:58:00.001-07:00

We've added police report crime information for several cities throughout the United States today, which means over 4 million people in the United States can search through police reports on POSTACRIME.COM. The following cities were added today:

We are actively working with police departments across the United States to incorporate their records into the POSTACRIME.COM database. POSTACRIME.COM does not charge police departments for this service (nor do we charge you to use it).

If your police department is not currently represented in POSTACRIME.COM, send us an email and let us know, we'll contact them on your behalf and ask them to provide us with their information.

Our development team is hard at work coming up with new features and tools to search and use the data collected from local police departments. Sign up for an account to be kept up to date about new features and enhancements.

Police Report Info Added to POSTACRIME

2007-07-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

Today we rolled out police report data for Bellevue, Wa, the first of many cities that we plan to integrate into POSTACRIME. You can search for these crimes by address or zip code and see this crime data displayed on an easy to understand, map type format right along side of the user generated crimes. We're providing you the most comprehensive resource for crime information available, bringing together crime information posted by you and police department information available to the public in one place, POSTACRIME.COM.

Want to know what kind of crime happens on your route to work or the gym? Do you want to know if it is safe to leave your car overnight at your friend's house? You can use POSTACRIME to search for and be more aware of crime where it is pertinent to you.

Here's how it works. In many local police departments, when an officer takes a report from a crime victim, they enter it into an electronic database and make that data available to the public. POSTACRIME then works with the local police to obtain this data and import it daily into our website for you to search.

We will be adding new cities to POSTACRIME each week. Create an account and we'll notify you when this data becomes available in your area or send us an email and we'll contact your police deparment and ask them to become part of POSTACRIME.COM.

As always, we look forward to receiving your comments and feedback.

Hitting the Streets

2007-07-08T21:33:00.000-07:00

Last week we hit the streets of Seattle trying to assist the Seattle Police Department in identifying a man who has committed 6 robberies over the last 3 weeks in the University District. Most of the stores that were hit are located on University Avenue. We went door to door handing out flyers explaining POSTACRIME. We strongly encouraged all the local businesses to post their photos of the perpretrator on POSTACRIME.COM so that the public might assist in identifying this criminal. The backbone of POSTACRIME is getting people to post their crime events. Look at it as a public service. Not only might the perpetrator get caught, but the more we are aware of crime in our neighborhoods the better prepared we can become at curtailing it.

POSTACRIME.COM is a tool for the public to be proactive in a fun and productive way. Like any tool it only works if it is used.

I want to personally thank everyone for their positive feeback and support of our efforts.

OH, I almost forgot to mention that we have just received our first delivery of our POSTACRIME decals and signs. These are a MUST for any business wanting to deter crime from happening. They look fantastic and are available for purchase here http://www.postacrime.com/shop/

Calling All Posters

2007-07-02T10:12:00.001-07:00

We've received numerous questions about how to use our site to POST CRIME, so this BLOG entry will serve as a sort of primer to let people know the many ways they can post crime to our database.

First off, posting a crime is very easy and requires very little information to get started. You do not need to have a photo or video in order to post. Simply create an account and click on the "Post Crime" tab to get started.

Secondly, if you are concerned about not including your exact street address, you can simply enter the block instead of the actual address. For example, if your address is 141 Smith Street, you may enter 100 Smith Street.

What kind of crime can you post? Here are a couple of examples:

Your car was broken into last night and your stereo and IPOD were stolen. Take a photo of your car, maybe the include a photo of what was stolen if you have one, fill out the address, type of crime, and description of the crime (what time it occured, what was taken, if you saw a suspicious vehicle, etc.).
You have a photo/video of someone who stole something from your convenience store. If you have a photo or video of someone stealing something on your Digital Video Recorder (DVR), you will need to transfer it to your computer prior to uploading it to POSTACRIME. The process varies by DVR manufacturer, but most allow you to store the clip or photo to a memory card, CD, or DVD. You then transfer the media to your computer and click the browse button on the Post Crime and locate on your computer. You may add up to four photos or videos.

Other crimes you can easily post:
Vandalism to your property.
Construction material stolen from your job site.
Home or business burglary.
Vehicle theft (post photos of your stolen vehicle).

Your crime posting will be seen by thousands of viewers, most of them who live in or near your neighborhood. If just one of them has information about your crime, they can submit a tip to you or provide the information directly to the police. In all cases, we stronly encourage you to file a police report prior to posting information on POSTACRIME.

POSTACRIME in Featured on KDFA in Texas!

2007-06-29T06:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were interviewed by KDFA News Channel 10 in Amarillo, Texas. They ran a great piece about POSTACRIME during their 5 and 6 o'clock news casts, it is definetly worth checking out. The link to the story is under featured videos on their frontpage.

We want to welcome all of our new users from Amarillo, and encourage you to tell your friends and family about POSTACRIME!

KOMO-TV Features POSTACRIME.COM

2007-06-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

We were interviewed by Matt Markovich from KOMO-TV in Seattle about POSTACRIME.COM, click here to read the story and watch the segment.

We're having a ton of fun with the attention that POSTACRIME has recieved in only the first week of being live!

POSTACRIME on KOMO Radio Seattle

2007-06-24T22:19:00.001-07:00

We received our first press coverage on Friday, June 22nd. KOMO Radio in Seattle, WA interviewed me about POSTACRIME and aired sound bytes of the interview during the 5 o'clock drive before the Mariners game. We're all very excited that word is starting to get out about POSTACRIME!

postacrime.com @ npost Networking Event

2007-06-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended the npost.com Seattle Entreprenuer's Networking event with my long time friends Dan and Adam. Adam is a program manager at Payscale.com, and Dan and I went representing POSTACRIME, Dan was even kind enough to sport his POSTACRIME.COM Tshirt.

The event was held at the Great Nabob located on Lower Queen Anne and gathered some of the best (and worst) internet startup companies and ideas in the Seattle area.

I had a chance to talk with several people from different start ups, appature, Mixpo, Trenchmice, BuddyTV, and several guys that work with Adam at Payscale.

It was very interesting to hear people's thoughts and feedback on POSTACRIME, I enjoyed talking to people about our Web site and hearing how they would use it, or what they thought it could do. One guy I talked with thought initially that POSTACRIME would be used by good samaritans who want to post information about crimes they've witnessed. I don't suppose why it couldn't be!

The best thing I heard all night though was from Glenn Pingul who works at Mixpo. His comment was that POSTACRIME was using "Social Justice" to stop crime, and frankly I couldn't agree more.

Overall I thought the event was a lot of fun and I was able to meet and network with some very interesting people. I'll be anxious to follow the progress of the people and companies that attended.

POSTACRIME.COM - We Launch!

2007-06-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

POSTACRIME.COM has launched our beta for the world to see today! You may be asking yourself what many people do when I first tell them about our idea, what is PostaCrime?

David, Greg, and I (Ben) started POSTACRIME.COM, a free service that allows business owners with CCTV (closed circuit television) systems to post photos and videos of people who rip them off on the internet. David and Greg have been in the security industry for 15 years, and they have seen all to many times where they help a business owner who just had $10,000 worth of merchandise stolen turn over the video of the criminals to the police.

Often times the police get a crystal clear photo of the criminal, and more often then not the criminals are not caught. Which makes sense, unless someone actually recognizes the criminal in the photo, or he or she is a repeat offender, it is next to impossible to identify them.

This is where POSTACRIME comes in. Now the police or the business owner can post the photo online for the public to help identify, they can even offer rewards to further encourage people to submit tips and help identify criminals. Our goal was to make a clean, intuitive user interface that allows the public to easily search for crimes by their zipcode. Users can submit tips online to the "Poster" and they in turn give that information to the police.

We think that posting people online who have committed crimes will not only help police bust criminals, but more importantly will serve as a formidable deterant for would be criminals. Business owners can display decals (available in our store) at their front and back entrances, cash registers, dressing rooms, or anywhere else to tell people that if they commit a crime, their face will be posted online.

I found an article recently which discusses how the West Yorkshire Police are sharing photos and videos of criminals on their Intranet website. The article explains that in the past 12 months, over 350 criminals have been identified and prosecuted. Can you imagine how many more would be caught if the general public were able to also view the content? POSTACRIME will allow them to share this content online with the general public for free.

We welcome any feedback about our website or any ideas that you may have about how to best make use of this powerful tool. We will keep you updated via this blog on our progress launching our "Internet Startup" and look forward to sharing our experiences with you in the future.