The Regina Police Service is pleased to offer Regina citizens a new online, interactive crime map that will help people stay up to date on crime trends in their own neighbourhoods and across the city. This new Community Crime Map can be found on the Regina Police Service website here. The Community Crime Map includes resources like “Frequently Asked Questions” and a “User Manual”, as well as a Glossary to explain different crime categories and what they contain.
The Community Crime Map is part of the Service’s commitment to transparency and accountability to Regina citizens. Its design will give residents better awareness of crime reported in the City’s different wards and neighbourhoods. Essentially, the Community Crime Map provides a picture of reported crime in the city of Regina, showing approximate locations of various crime types in a selected period. The map can show reported crimes for up to the previous 90 days. The map is updated every 24 hours to reflect the most recent occurrences available; however, there is a built-in 24-hour delay. The rationale for the delay is two-fold: crimes often turn out to be more than, or other than, what was initially reported, so the 24-hour delay mitigates initial data quality issues. In addition, many reported crimes are also dynamic situations and the delay allows for initial investigation and report-writing, as well as public safety (by not having the unintended consequence of drawing citizens to an unfolding event).
The Community Crime Map has been designed to exclude certain crime types. For instance, this map intentionally excludes sexual assaults and homicides. Due to the nature, sensitivity, and potential for identification of victims and/or families, these have been excluded. Another example: some crime types like frauds are often reported online, so there is no meaningful location to report. As such, frauds are not included on the Map. Locations of crimes are not mapped to an exact address, in order to avoid identifying any particular individual or entity. Instead, locations are mapped to the nearest intersection.
The Community Crime Map is the result of the purchase of new mapping software and many hours of in-house customization and testing. The software, purchased from ESRI, and the specific tool, ArcGis, has been widely used internationally by public safety agencies and city planners. One of the benefits of this purchase is the ability to integrate with the existing software tools used by the City of Regina. ArcGis has been used by the City of Regina for many years for mapping city boundaries, neighbourhoods, waterways, and infrastructure.
