Crime Data Frequently Asked Questions, Schemes and Mind Maps of Information Technology

Download Crime Data Frequently Asked Questions and more Schemes and Mind Maps Information Technology in PDF only on Docsity!

St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department

City of St. Louis

Information Technology Division

Crime Data Frequently Asked Questions

Table of Contents

What is “crime” data and how does it differ from 911 calls or incident reports?....... 3

I've found some duplicate records in the database. Is there a reason that records

might be listed more than once? If not, can I delete duplicate records?..................... 3

Why do some records not list a neighborhood? Also, some neighborhoods are

labeled 88 or 87. What do they represent?.................................................................. 4

Are crimes typically reported the month they happen or is there a delay? To what

agency are the crimes reported?.................................................................................. 4

Some dates of occurrence fall way of the range of data we received. Is there a reason

that crimes would be listed under a different year or are these just typos? ................ 5

Is the time the actual time the crime allegedly occurred?........................................... 5

Could you provide more detailed descriptions of unfounded, new and administrative

adjusted crimes?.......................................................................................................... 5

What exactly does “count” represent? If I add up the count should it give me a total

number of crimes?....................................................................................................... 6

The field “Crime” appears to be codes for specific types of crimes, or description of

crimes. Also, is there a way to use this field (or another) to determine which crimes

are Part I vs. Part II crimes?........................................................................................ 6

How many police districts are there? Also, some records do not have a district listed.

What does this mean? ................................................................................................. 7

XCoord and YCoord - what are these coordinates of/for? ......................................... 7

There are several addresses associated with the crime record. Does one of the

address fields tend to be more accurate than the other?.............................................. 7

Are crimes occurring at casino boats handled by the SLMPD? ................................. 8

What is “crime” data and how does it differ from 911 calls or incident reports?

“Crime” data from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD)

refers specifically to criminal acts known to the police as defined by Uniform

Crime Reporting (UCR) standards.

There are several different types of law enforcement data at the SLMPD.

• Calls for service – This data primarily consists of 9-1-1 calls, but also

includes self-initiated and administrative patrol activities. Some of these

calls are to report criminal activity and result in the creation of an

incident report; other calls are, for various reasons, closed without any

further action needed from the police department (i.e. a burglar alarm

that was accidentally set off).

• Incident reports – If activity comes to the attention of the police that

violates the criminal code of the Missouri State Revised Statutes (RSMo)

or violates ordinances of the City of St. Louis, an incident report is

written. This incident report is meant to document facts and evidence

regarding alleged criminal activity to be passed on for prosecution in the

appropriate court.

• Crime – Every incident report at the SLMPD is read by a “UCR

Technician”, a person who applies standardized definitions of crimes to

the facts presented in the incident reports. The application of these

standards ensures that crimes are comparable regardless of where they

happen. For example, a person who is beaten and has both legs broken

may be a victim of Assault 1

st

degree in the State of Missouri, but may be

a victim of Battery in a different state (dependent on that State’s

particular criminal law). Under UCR guidelines, the person is a victim of

aggravated assault, regardless of the criminal law of their state or the

charge that may result from prosecution.

I've found some duplicate records in the database. Is there a reason that records

might be listed more than once? If not, can I delete duplicate records?

There should be no “duplicate” records. There are several situations that result

in records that look like duplicates, but are NOT duplicates.

Records appearing to be duplicates may, in fact, be multiple crimes occurring

during the same incident. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) “hierarchy

rule” limits most crimes to one crime per incident, with the highest, or most

serious crime, occurring during the incident being counted. Exceptions to this

rule include simple and aggravated assaults, which are counted per victim , and

motor vehicle theft, which is counted per vehicle. Thus, if three people are

victims of aggravated assault in one incident, the resulting three records may

look exactly alike. Homicides and Rapes are also counted per victim , and arsons

are always counted, in addition to any accompanying simultaneous crime. For

more information concerning the UCR “hierarchy rule” and other reporting

guidelines, please refer to the Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook, which can

be found on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) website.

Additionally, some adjustment records (explained further in this document) may

appear to be very similar, but again, they are not duplicate records.

Why do some records not list a neighborhood? Also, some neighborhoods are

labeled 88 or 87. What do they represent?

An attempt is made to “verify” all addresses of crimes in the City of St. Louis.

Address verification is the process of confirming that the address is valid and

attaching geographic information, such as neighborhood and district, to that call,

incident, or crime record. In some cases, the address is not verified properly,

and valid geographic boundary information is unavailable for that record. At

times, due to circumstances of the particular incident, the crime victim may be

unsure of the location of the crime.

Neighborhood numbers of 80 and above represent major public areas in the city

other than neighborhoods, most of which are parks. The numbers represent the

following areas:

• 80 – Carondelet Park
• 81 – Tower Grove Park
• 82 – Forest Park
• 83 – Fairgrounds Park
• 84 – Penrose Park
• 85 – O’Fallon Park
• 86 – Cal-Bel Cemetery
• 87 – Botanical Garden
• 88 – Wilmore Park

Are crimes typically reported the month they happen or is there a delay? To what

agency are the crimes reported?

Crime data is reported monthly to the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP).

The State of Missouri then sends that data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation

(FBI).

In October 2004, an administrative cleanup of outstanding incomplete incident

reports occurred by the order of Chief Joseph Mokwa. Prior to this time, delay

in reporting the crime to the MSHP was more common than it is today.

After that cleanup and currently today, the vast majority of crimes are reported

to the MSHP for the month in which the crime was reported to the SLMPD.

Some dates of occurrence fall way of the range of data we received. Is there a reason

that crimes would be listed under a different year or are these just typos?

Old occurrence dates are usually caused by a delay in reporting of crime. There

are often significant delays in reporting of crimes, and some of these delays can

be quite surprising to those who are unfamiliar with large amounts of criminal

data/activity. For instance, identity theft and other types of theft may go

undiscovered for years. Additionally, SLMPD usually has at least one homicide

every year in which the person expires many years after the action that causes

the person’s death.

An occasional typo occurs, and you can safely assume that future occurrence

dates are typos.

Is the time the actual time the crime allegedly occurred?

The “Date Occurred” field is based on the “Date Occurred From” field on the

Incident Report, and the time in that field is the time the incident occurred. On

some incidents (often in burglaries or motor vehicle thefts), the victim may be

uncertain as to the actual time of the crime. In these cases, there is a field on the

incident report for the date and time that the incident “occurred to” (i.e. the

victim parked her car at 11:00 p.m. and when she went outside at 8:00 a.m., the

car was gone). The “Occurred to” field is not part of our standard crime dataset.

Could you provide more detailed descriptions of unfounded, new and administrative

adjusted crimes?

“New crime” is straightforward – a UCR Technician reads a completed incident

report, applies UCR standards, and codes the crime to the appropriate category.

“Unfounded” is when a crime has been reported to the police and then further

information or investigation reveals that no crime took place (for example, a

person reports their vehicle stolen, but the person discovers a family member

borrowed the vehicle without notifying them).

“Administrative Adjustment” denotes some change in crime classification. For

example, a person is shot; the crime would be reported as an aggravated assault.

The person dies two months later from an infection of the gunshot wound. An

administrative adjustment would occur to subtract (-1 in the count) the

aggravated assault and add (+1 in the count) a homicide. There are common

adjustments to motor vehicle theft codes due to tracking of recoveries of the

vehicles; these adjustments do not affect the bottom line figure, but are

important for crime analysis purposes. Other administrative adjustments may

occur if a crime has been incorrectly coded (as found via regular monthly

audits).

What exactly does “count” represent? If I add up the count should it give me a total

number of crimes?

The count represents how the particular record impacts the bottom line crime

figure. Unfounded records are deducted from the crime total, because they mean

that the original crime reported for that complaint number was NOT indeed a

crime. Administrative adjustments occur usually when there has been some

change to the original classification of the incident. There is a deduction of the

original classification and an addition of the updated crime classification.

A sum on the “count” column will give you the total number of crimes.

The field “Crime” appears to be codes for specific types of crimes, or description of

crimes. Also, is there a way to use this field (or another) to determine which crimes

are Part I vs. Part II crimes?

The “crime” field shows a six-digit number that corresponds to the description.

If you see only five numbers, that is because Excel has left off the leading zero.

The first two digits designate the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) category of the

crime, and the last four are internal SLMPD codes.

The first two digits of the six-digit crime code represent Uniform Crime Reports

(UCR) Part I crimes:

• 01 – Homicide (Keep in mind that Excel will, by default, cut off the

leading zero, so the number will look like 10000).

• 02 – Rape (i.e. 20000 – 29999)
• 03 – Robbery (i.e. 30000 – 39999)
• 04 – Aggravated Assault
• 05 – Burglary
• 06 – Larceny
• 07 – Vehicle Theft
• 08 – Arson

All other codes are Part II, ranging from 09 (Simple Assault) to 26 (All Other

Part II, a “catch all” category). Again, the first two digits represent the general

UCR category, and you can look at the description field to determine those

categories.

How many police districts are there? Also, some records do not have a district listed.

What does this mean?

There are nine police districts, as designated by a single-digit number (1 – 9).

Crimes in which an address is unavailable or unverified will not have an

assigned district. Refer to the answer to the question regarding missing/null

neighborhoods; the address validation process described therein is also how

District is assigned to the record.

XCoord and YCoord - what are these coordinates of/for?

The XCoord and YCoord fields are X- and Y-coordinates of the I/Leads incident

location and in State Plane North American Datum 1983 (NAD83) format. This

is a standard coordinate system for displaying regional/local geographic data in

any desktop mapping application.

There are several addresses associated with the crime record. Does one of the

address fields tend to be more accurate than the other?

The I/Leads address would be the more accurate address to use in examining

location of crime. A 911 caller may have a general idea of where an emergency

is happening, but the police officer must determine, while on the scene, where

the incident actually happened. The Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) address

comes from where the 911 caller has said the incident is located, while the

I/Leads address comes from the official police incident report.

If there is a zero in the I/Leads street number field, it is usually because the

incident occurred at an intersection. In these cases, the street number will be

zero, and the street names for the intersection will be in the “ILEADS-Street”

field, separated by a “/”.

The I/Leads system for police incident reports was put in place in September

2003. Crime records from prior to this time may have a greater incidence of

addresses with a “0” in the street number field due to the loading of data from

the newer CAD system to the older Police Incident Reporting System (PIRS).

Any common “Location Name” (i.e. Zoo, Scottrade Center, etc.) is also included

to assist in understanding crime data.

Are crimes occurring at casino boats handled by the SLMPD?

The Missouri State Highway Patrol has jurisdiction over gambling-related

incidents that occur on casino boats. This means that they would be compiling

statistics and reporting those crimes instead of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police

Department.

Non-gambling related crimes occurring on casino boats would be reported to and

by the SLMPD, provided that the casino, the MSHP, or the victim notified the

SLMPD that a crime occurred.

SLMPD NEIGHBORHOOD TO DISTRICT LISTING

Neighborhood

Number

Neighborhood Name Neighborhood

Primary District

Neighborhood

SLMPD NEIGHBORHOOD TO DISTRICT LISTING

Neighborhood Number Neighborhood Name Neighborhood Primary District Neighborhood

 - As of 06/05/ BY NEIGHBORHOOD NUMBER 

• 1 Cardonlet Addl District
• 2 Patch
• 3 Holly Hills
• 4 Boulevard Heights
• 5 Bevo Mill
• 6 Princeton Heights
• 7 South Hampton
• 8 St. Louis Hills
• 9 Lindenwood Park
• 10 Ellendale
• 11 Clifton Heights
• 12 The Hill
• 13 Southwest Garden
• 14 North Hampton
• 15 Tower Grove South
• 16 Dutchtown
• 17 Mount Pleasant
• 18 Marine Villa
• 19 Gravois Park
• 20 Kosciusko
• 21 Soulard
• 22 Benton Park
• 23 McKinley Heights
• 24 Fox Park
• 25 Tower Grove East
• 26 Compton Heights
• 27 Shaw
• 28 McRee Town
• 29 Tiffany
• 30 Benton Park West
• 31 The Gate District
• 32 Lafayette Square
• 33 Peabody-Darst-Webbe
• 34 Lasalle
• 35 Downtown
• 36 Downtown West
• 37 Midtown
• 38 Central West End
• 39 Forest Park SE
• 40 Kings Oak
• 41 Cheltenham
• 42 Clayton-Tamm
• 43 Franz Park
• 44 Hi-Point
• 45 Wydown-Skinker
• 46 Skinker-DeBaliviere
• 47 DeBaliviere Place
• 48 West End
• 49 Visitation Park
• 50 Wells-Goodfellow
  • As of 03/17/ BY NEIGHBORHOOD NUMBER
• 49 Visitation Park Addl District
• 50 Wells-Goodfellow
• 51 Academy
• 52 Kingsway West
• 53 Fountain Park
• 54 Lewis Place
• 55 Kingsway East
• 56 The Great Ville
• 57 The Ville
• 58 Vandeventer
• 59 Jeff Vanderlou
• 60 St. Louis Place
• 61 Carr Square
• 62 Columbus Square
• 63 Old North St. Louis
• 64 Near N. Riverfront
• 65 Hyde Park
• 66 College Hill
• 67 Fairground Neighborhood
• 68 O'Fallon
• 69 Penrose
• 70 Mark Twain I-70 Ind.
• 71 Mark Twain
• 72 Walnut Park East
• 73 North Point
• 74 Baden
• 75 Riverview
• 76 Walnut Park West
• 77 Covenant Blu - Grand Center
• 78 Hamilton Heights
• 79 North Riverfront
• 80 Carondelet Park
• 81 Tower Grove Park
• 82 Forest Park
• 83 Fairgrounds Park
• 84 Penrose Park
• 85 O'Fallon Park
• 86 Calvary-Bellefontaine Cemetaries - Pg. 2 of