Daily Texan - UCrime

From the Daily Texan:


A crime database Web site is allowing students to see where crime is occurring around college campuses on a Google Maps background.

Colin Drane, founder of UCrime.com, said the site offers a geospacial way of displaying campus crime information, which may be easier for students to use than a traditional police blotter. The site, which will double in size within the next two weeks, creates mappings based on crime information provided by campus and surrounding cities' police departments and is updated when this information is received, he said.

The site offers users the ability to search for different types of crime on a campus, including vandalism and thefts. Drane said this information could help students decide where to park or where to look for housing, and could coincide with information provided by emergency awareness programs enacted by universities.

"We are more of a latent alert system," Drane said, adding that a recent attempted kidnapping at the University of Maryland would not be included in the college's emergency awareness program but would be mapped on the UCrime site.

Drane said he hopes the Web site will prompt university police departments around the country to compete in how quickly and often they update the crime information available to students.

University Police Department Chief Robert Dahlstrom said the department has considered mapping crime statistics in the past but was limited by GPS mapping management around campus. He said he supports any way that can make students aware of what happens on campus but is worried that crime in surrounding areas, which is also displayed on the map, may confuse people who are not familiar with the area.

"If you're a parent looking to send your child [to the University], that site could be a little misleading," Dahlstrom said. "At the same time, I'm for being totally open about what's going on."

Dahlstrom said he encourages everyone from the UT community to visit the UTPD Web site and sign up to receive Campus Watch, a daily log of crime information on campus. Students can also sign up for Mobile Campus, which provides updated crime information and warnings to users' cell phones, at https://longhorns.mobilecampus.com/.