LexisNexis Community Crime Map

Special thanks to Pink Lady Investigations for the tip on this crime map tool. You can find her on Facebook and definitely check out her videos on TikTok: https://www.facebook.com/pinkladyinvestigations/ https://www.tiktok.com/@therealpinklady

What LexisNexis Offers

The LexisNexis Community Crime Map lets the public see crime data used by law enforcement. It helps lower crime and increase safety by connecting the community and police through shared information. The map uses crime reports from police agencies to keep people informed and involved.

• Crime data is collected from police databases.
• LexisNexis standardizes data for easy public access.
• It protects victim privacy while informing the public.
• This tool aims to reduce crime by improving police-community relations.

The Map

I decided to check out my hometown of Middleton, MA on the crime map – https://communitycrimemap.com/map.

I made sure to adjust the filters to cover all crimes and for the past year for the most results. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the police in my area report to the crime map.

There does seem to be a lot of cases in the Billerica area, which is Middlesex County. Let’s check out what information we can get with these map markers.

The Crimes

I grabbed info from 3 locations in the Middlesex area with different color map markers. The information given is more than I thought!

We’re given the following information:

• Report number
• Type of crime
• Location type
• Date of incident
• Time of incident
• Accuracy of location
• Partial address
• Reporting agency

If we wanted to find out more info, we could always do a FOIA request to the reporting agency and include the data and report number.

If you’re interested in learning about doing FOIA requests, check it out on my course page.

Investigation Courses

Conclusion

The LexisNexis Community Crime Map can be a useful tool for improving safety and communication between the community and police. However, its effectiveness is limited in areas where local law enforcement does not report their data to the platform. This gap means that some communities might not have access to crime information.

For police departments interested in joining and contributing their data to enhance the tool’s coverage and impact, reaching out to LexisNexis® Customer Support at (866) 277-8407 or publicsafety.support@lexisnexisrisk.com is a crucial step towards making their community’s crime data accessible and actionable.