ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has rolled out a web-based crime mapping tool for the public to be better informed about crimes in their neighborhoods and around the city.
At a news conference to promote Monday’s launch, St. Louis Police Chief Robert Tracy said the crime mapping tool is easy to use and provides much-needed transparency for the public.
The tool, available at SLMPD.org/mapping, is updated every 24 hours and shows crimes from the previous 180 days.
Chief Tracy said a variety of felonies and misdemeanors will appear on the map with easily distinguishable icons and a key. Domestic assaults, sex crimes, and juvenile crimes will not be posted on the crime map.
Users will be able to look at specific types of crimes and can scale their search from the prior day up to six months ago. By providing a more specific address, landmark, or zip code, users can also check for crimes within a radius around said location.
The mapping tool has an incident report chart that shows how often crime happens on certain days of the week.
Chief Tracy believes the mapping tool is another way the department can build trust in the community.
“Sometimes perception takes a long time to catch up to reality,” he said.
CentralSquare Technologies developed the Crime Mapping service and has contracts with dozens of other law enforcement agencies in cities across the country, allowing users the flexibility to check crime statistics in other select metro areas.
The SLMPD previously used a similar crime reporting map with a different vendor. However, the city and police department opted not to renew its contract in 2022, so that service was discontinued.
