Adrian Holovaty is well known for (among other things) creating ChicagoCrime.org, a mash-up
that combines Google Maps with Chicago crime data. This was one of the
first Google Maps mash-ups; now there are probably many thousands.
In the Netherlands, Rob Jan de Heer has spent the last nine months putting together something similar: Misdaadkaart.nl.
Covering the entire country, his Web application includes every police
report that is being made available, each of which are automatically
indexed, enriched with city name, street name, geo-tags, and crime type
— and plotted on a map. So far there are about 20,000 crimes plotted
on Misdaadkaart.nl.
Says Jan de Heer, “From a journalistic point of view, this will appear
to become very handy to, for instance, determine in what city most of a
certain type of crimes are taking place, or even within cities which
are the most criminal or safest neighborhoods.”
