Wikicrimes

WikiCrimes is a project in Brazil that allows anyone to register the type, the location and the time of a crime.

In the site we can also find the most popular crimes, that time that they are most likely to happen and ultimately, the areas that you have to take some precautions prior to go there.

Here are some statistics on the world’s criminality :

• Most of the crimes happen between 6 p.m. and midnight.

• The most popular crime is Robbery.

Here are some reasons this simple idea/project should succeed:

1- It is good when you are searching for an apartment and have no idea which areas you should avoid;

2- It gives you an indicator how secure you should feel on the locations that you frequently visit;

3- Wealth of information to detect patterns of criminality which can help public agencies in the formulation of public safety policies and police forces in the planning of their activities;

4- It is another tool to reduce the under-reporting effect and thus provide more accurate information. As citizens are confronted everyday with news that police has difficulties to handle every situation, they don’t  bother to report some type of crimes. Having an  online tool accessible from anywhere can reduce this effect.

Some references:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7347101.stm