Postacrime.com in the Seattle Times

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

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:

• Columbus, Ohio
• Sacramento, California
• Alexandria, Virginia
• Colorado Springs, Colorado
• Lincoln, Nebraska
• San Antonio, Texas
• Delray Beach, Florida
• Washington D.C.

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

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

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

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!

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

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!