New Utah online crime data ‘dashboards’ allow residents to drill down locally

: Ogden Police Chief Eric Younger, flanked by Mayor Mike Caldwell, speaks to journalists Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, in an Ogden Police Division briefing room. Younger recognized a person shot by police the day earlier than.

: This screengrab from the Utah Bureau of Legal Identification web site exhibits total crime developments in Ogden.

: This screengrab from the Utah Bureau of Legal Identification web site exhibits violent crime developments in Ogden.

: That is an instance of knowledge accessible from the Group Crime Map for Ogden.

MARK SHENEFELT, Commonplace-Examiner

Ogden Police Chief Eric Younger, flanked by Mayor Mike Caldwell, speaks to journalists Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, in an Ogden Police Division briefing room. Younger recognized a person shot by police the day earlier than.

OGDEN — Ogden Police Chief Eric Younger mentioned Thursday a brand new state service will assist give residents a better deal with on neighborhood crime developments.

The free on-line service, which permits customers to name up police businesses’ crime information for the previous 5 years, was introduced this week by the Utah Division of Public Security and its Bureau of Legal Identification.

Customers can study and type information by police company or jurisdiction and evaluate the knowledge with statewide or different businesses’ information. Searchable datasets embody: crimes in opposition to individuals, society, property; offenses reported by arrest; home violence evaluation; hate crimes; incidents cleared by arrest or different means; and officers killed and assaulted.

The databases are populated by data submitted by police departments across the state. The information may be seen on the BCI web site, bci.utah.gov.

Younger mentioned the Ogden Police Division already has provided services to assist individuals monitor crime in their neighborhoods. With the BCI dashboards, “This can be a nice further useful resource and in addition improves our transparency as an company,” Younger mentioned by e-mail.

Picture equipped, Utah Bureau of Legal Identification

This screengrab from the Utah Bureau of Legal Identification web site exhibits total crime developments in Ogden.

In keeping with the BCI dashboard, total crime in Ogden dipped final yr, with 8,603 incidents in comparison with 8,729 in 2020. Violent crime was up, nevertheless, from 499 in 2020 to 557 in 2021.

“These numbers are considerably higher than what most cities nationwide and throughout Utah are seeing, which is an total enhance in crime and violent crime,” Younger mentioned. He mentioned total crime in Ogden has dropped 34% over the previous 5 years.

The brand new BCI on-line dashboards make Utah crime information accessible to the general public faster that earlier than. Month-to-month information submitted by police businesses to BCI earlier than have been compiled and revealed in an annual Crime in Utah report in pdf format. That historic information in pdf kind will proceed to be accessible on the BCI web site.

“We’re continually searching for methods to be extra clear,” Jess Anderson, commissioner of the Utah Division of Public Security, mentioned in a ready assertion. “Transparency builds belief. Any such easy accessibility to just about real-time information will assist anybody to raised perceive crime developments of their communities.”