So a couple entries ago I mentioned that someone should make something like chicagocrime.org for Case. This is possible since we have a daily crime log which lists the location of each incident, and an excellent wiki with many geocoded locations.

I was bored a few nights ago and decided to try it out. In the interest of releasing early and often, I've made my first test available online at exogen.case.edu/crime/recent.

As you can see, it's nothing too fancy yet. This is my first non-trivial Django application, and I plan on using it as a testbed for Merquery.

So here's my to-do list (when I'm not working on Merquery, of course):

  • Draw new markers.
  • What should happen when two markers are placed on the same location, which is likely? Show both in the info window? Change the color of the marker? Try to put them next to each other?
  • Offer views by type of violation.
  • Activate the better location parsing (right now only the wiki data is checked, but the Google geocoding API helps with addresses). Already written, just needs to be put into production...
  • Geocode all the locations that couldn't be found.
  • Offer an RSS feed of recent crimes.
  • Import all incidents back to 2000 (for fun).
  • Use all the imported data for crime statistics per area.
  • Put code on opensource.case.edu.

Now to watch for that bicycle thief...


Update: Problem seems to be fixed, let me know if it's broken for you.

Update: Put the new location parser into production, and it now has a 66% success rate for geocoding locations. More wiki entries would help that number... anything to avoid doing them manually.