In a move to make information about crime activity as ubiquitous as weather data, SpotCrime – already the largest and most comprehensive online source for crime data – is introducing a new app that will make near real-time crime data available on Apple TV.
“Apps undoubtedly are the future of TV,” says SpotCrime Founder and President Colin Drane. “Given Apple TV’s innovative use of apps to personalize the home TV experience and the public’s unquenchable demand for more information about crime activity, I believe SpotCrime’s new Apple TV app not only will make crime data more readily available to be shared, but ultimately will drive greater awareness and new measures that will lead to a reduction in crime.”
Using SpotCrime’s Apple TV app, viewers will be able to see up-to-date details about actual crime incidents. Through its proprietary model, SpotCrime pulls crime incident data from multiple sources, including state and local police departments and validated news sources, to produce a comprehensive record of local crime information.
SpotCrime now has the largest footprint of crime data in the U.S. The company sends its 1.3 million subscribers more than 220 million crime alert emails annually, while over 40 million people interact with the crime information the company generates on a monthly basis.
Drane attributes SpotCrime’s continued growth to the fact that it is the only independent crime mapping and publishing company that is self-supporting. “SpotCrime does not take any outside funding and does not charge police departments or any other organizations for the information we provide,” he explains. “Our sole intent is to make all relevant crime information available to the public, taking full advantage of the Internet to allow this data to be shared.”
Despite SpotCrime’s efforts to make crime data available and create a higher level of transparency among both citizens and public officials, Drane admits that the firm has received occasional resistance from some government agencies.
“While most appreciate what we are trying to do, we have received pushback from some government agencies,” he says. “Despite that, we remain a strong proponent of open access to data. The easier it is for a community to access and share crime data, the higher the chance that community will be proactive in the fight against crime.”
In addition to its new Apple TV application, SpotCrime has partnerships with a number of major U.S. media companies, including the two largest television operators in the country, Tegna and Sinclair Broadcast Group. It also partners with such online firms as Life360 (the biggest family network on mobile), Lifeshield (the leading wireless home security provider, now owned by AT&T), and Zillow (the leading real estate marketplace).
For more information about SpotCrime, visit the company’s website at www.spotcrime.com.
