Mission: To provide an easy-to-browse database of crimes reported in the city of Chicago.

Background:
Created as a free public service by online journalist Adrian Holovaty, chicagocrime.org meshes reports of crimes to the Chicago Police Department with Google's online mapping technology. The Web site is not affiliated with the police department, Google, or the city. Rather, it supplies an alternative way to view public records that are available elsewhere. Once a day, chicagocrime.org downloads every crime listed in the police department's Citizen ICAM. Because the police do not release exact addresses of reported crimes, the maps on the chicagocrime.org site do not designate exact crime locations, but the start of the block where each crime supposedly occurred. These crimes have merely been reported; they have not necessarily been adjudicated.

Outstanding Web Features:
Chicagocrime.org may be browsed by type of crime, such as assault, intimidation, or theft; location, including automatic teller machine, convenience store, and gas station; date over a three-month period; and street, ZIP code, police district, and ward. All the corresponding maps contain different colored markers representing seven crime categories. Visitors to the site may create their own route, which allows travelers to zero in on a neighborhood and click on specific streets, which automatically connect graphically. Any crimes committed along the route are displayed. Chicagocrime.org also offers free RSS feeds containing the latest crimes for each police beat and each city block.