by Matt Kastner If you’ve ever been curious about where and when crimes have been taking place in the City of St. Louis, there is a great tool courtesy of CrimeReports.com and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. This free service allows you to map crimes by type, date and area.
Taking a quite look at recent homicides and assaults in the map, it is obvious that there are some pretty significant trends. No neighborhood is without it’s occasional issue, but the low number of recent incidents in near southside neighborhoods like Shaw, Southwest Garden, Benton Park, Soulard, Fox Park, Tower Grove East and Tower Grove South (north of Utah at least) is encouraging. On the other hand, the number of incidents in Dutchtown, Gravois Park, and the southeast tip of Tower Grove South, at the intersection of Grand and Gravois, continues to be a concern.
The current map setup goes back only to the last six months, but it is still informative. I have found that the site tends to bog down quite a bit when you go back too far and cover too large an area. I would try to keep it simple, for now at least. Version 2.0 of the site is set to be coming out soon so hopefully there will be improvements. In the meantime, it’s still interesting. But don’t take my word for it; check out the map for yourself.
