How Safe is Your Neighborhood?

Sometimes you just don't want to know, but when it comes to local crime, being in the dark is never the best option.

When I started noticing a few more police cars than normal in my Northwest Hills neighborhood, and then saw someone getting arrested two doors down one night, I checked out the Statesman Crime Tracker.  I had witnessed the arrest while walking my dog, and approached the APD officer keeping watch at the front of the condo complex. He wasn't too willing to tell me what was going on, as I'm sure he just didn't want me to panic. All he said was, "We were looking for someone and we found him."

I did some research and found there was a Peeping Tom that night, and plenty more burglaries each month than I expected.

Recently, I discovered an even better local crime database. During "A Neighborly Conversation" on KOOP 91.7 last week, David Kobierowski and I interviewed Jack Darby, founder of www.krimelabb.com. Apparently, the APD thinks this site is better than their own database and want to find a way to bring it into their own system.

Here's what Darby says on the site:

krimelabb.com is ...

• Austin city-wide crime data
• free and no registration is required for basic service
• a tool for viewing crime data from a variety of perspectives
• updated daily
• a mashup that leverages value from APD data, Google Maps and Streetview, news media and other resources

You can CONNECT THE DOTS...research crime here then provide helpful details to Austin Police Department.

Check out the site (www.krimelabb.com). You can plug-in your address and find out crime happening in your own neighborhood and beyond. There's no need to be paranoid, but Austin is no sleepy town anymore. It's good to know what's going on, even if what's going on are Peeping Toms. Ew.