SpotCrime Will Partner with Minneapolis/St.Paul’s KSTP-TV

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore-based SpotCrime, the largest independent data and news company mapping crime worldwide, has signed a major partnership agreement with Minneapolis/St. Paul's KSTP-TV (www.kstp.com), the flagship television station of Hubbard Broadcasting Corporation.

This is the second major deal SpotCrime has signed this week. Earlier in the week, SpotCrime announced that it had signed an agreement with Nexstar Broadcasting to provide local crime data to KAMR, Nexstar's NBC television affiliate in Amarillo, Texas (www.kamr.com and http://myhighplains.com).

Under the new partnership, SpotCrime will map crime data for KSTP-TV 5 Eyewitness News. KSTP has a long history of innovation. It was the first television station to sign on the air in the upper Midwest, and the first TV station in the U.S. to broadcast in color, broadcast a seven-day schedule, and use remote satellite reports inside newscasts.

Other Hubbard Broadcasting (HBI) television stations in Minnesota include KSTC-TV, KSAX-TV, KRWF-TV, WDIO-TV, WIRT-TV and KAAL-TV. Minneapolis/St. Paul HBI radio stations include AM1500 KSTP, KS95-FM, FM107 WFMP, plus the Hubbard Radio Network. HBI also owns two television stations in New York and four television stations in New Mexico.

"SpotCrime was founded on the principle that information is power, and it is the right of every citizen to have easy access to crime information in their neighborhood," explains SpotCrime Founder and President Colin Drane. "We believe that with our information, citizens' awareness of their surroundings will increase and, as a result, they will be able to make safer decisions. There is wisdom in the noise and we hope to draw attention to crime hot spots to help direct policy and resources in the prevention of crime."

This week's deals mean that SpotCrime is now partnering with more than 70 media outlets in the U.S. to make crime data available. In the past three months alone, SpotCrime has announced major deals with Local TV LLC, a broadcast holding company which owns and/or operates broadcast outlets in 19 markets nationwide; Newport Television, which owns stations in 22 markets nationally; Fisher Communications, which owns or manages 28 television and radio stations in the Pacific Northwest; and Capitol Broadcasting Company, with stations in Raleigh, Charlotte, and Durham, NC.

Other SpotCrime media partners include WBAL-AM in Baltimore, NBC-29 in Charlottesville, The Austin Statesman, The Lakeland Ledger, and KLAS-8 Las Vegas.

"We strongly believe that intended and unintended positive social consequences will evolve from SpotCrime," Drane says.

As an unbiased crime source, SpotCrime does not selectively report or judge crimes and is the only company mapping crime that does not partner with local police departments. "Though we have great relationships with the police, we believe in complete transparency and independence, which ensures that we remain unbiased in our reporting," notes Drane.

For more information about SpotCrime, visit the company's website at www.spotcrime.com