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Neighborhood CRIME Spotter

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Neighborhood Crime Spotter: How Do I Get Started?
Neighborhood Crime Spotter is easy to use. Simply select your neighborhood from the Neighborhood pick list and click the various crime types. The map will show crimes by clusters, where there are multiple points on top of one another, very near one-another, or just as individual points. The map is interactive and allows you to zoom in and see more of the crime points.

The following describes instructions for using Neighborhood Crime Spotter:

Step 1: Tigard Crime Spotter opens up to a map of Tigard displaying Tigard neighborhood boundaries. Using the neighborhood pick list, select your neighborhood. If you don't know where your neighborhood is, use the roller on your mouse to zoom in and find your neighborhood; then use the pick list. Alternatively, if your mouse does not have a roller, use the sliding scale bar located on the left to zoom in or out, and use your mouse to pan about the map.
Step 2: Once you select a neighborhood, Neighborhood Crime Spotter will zoom to that neighborhood. Then click either of the main categories: Familiar Crimes or Other Crimes to see the different crime types. Within each category you can select individual crimes (e.g., Burglary) or you can see the total for the category (e.g., All Familiar Crimes). Note: concentrations of crimes are aggregated by colored circles with the total shown inside the circle. Zooming in on the map will disaggregate the clusters.
Step 3: By default, Neighborhood Crime Spotter displays a moving 12 month window of crime data. To modify the dates, click the date range calendar buttons located at the top of the page.
Step 4: All changes/settings in Neighborhood Crime Spotter are dynamically reflected in the accompanying graph below the map. Rolling your cursor over any of the bars displays the totals for that particular month, depending on what crimes and date range are selected.

What Crimes Are Included?
CRIME Spotter for Neighborhoods displays only reported crimes that result in a Police report. Crime Spotter for Neighborhoods displays Familiar Crimes (Part 1 Crimes, see definitions below) and Other Crimes (Part 2 Crimes, see definitions below) for a selected Tigard Neighborhood. Where there is a concentration of crimes, the total number is shown in aggregate. Rapes and Sex Offenses, while shown in the totals are not mapped to protect the privacy of victims.

General Crime Definitions
Part 1 Crimes

Arson: Any willful or malicious burning or attempts to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling, public building, other building or structure, motor vehicle, aircraft, personal property of another, etc.
Assault: The attack or threat of attack for the purpose of inflicting severe bodily injury, usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or other means likely to produce death or great bodily harm.
Burglary: The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft.
Homicide: Willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another.
Larceny: The unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another.
Motor Vehicle Theft: Theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle.
Theft from Vehicle: Thefts of articles from automobiles, trucks, attached truck trailers, buses, vans motor homes or motorcycles. Also, includes any parts or accessory attached to the interior or exterior of a motor vehicle.
Rape: The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will. Assaults and attempts to commit rape by force or threat of force are also included; however, statutory rape (without force) and other sex offenses are excluded.
Robbery: The taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.

Part 2 Crimes

Assault (simple): The use of personal physical force against another. It does not involve the use of any firearm, knife, cutting instrument or other dangerous weapon. Injury, if any, requires little more than first aid treatment.
Disorderly Conduct: Any behavior that intends to disturb the public peace or decorum causes public inconvenience annoyance or alarm, or shock the public sense of morality.
Drug Abuse: The violation of laws prohibiting the production, distribution, and/or use of certain controlled substances and equipment or devices utilized in their preparation and/or use.
DUII: Driving or operating a motor vehicle or common carrier while mentally or physically impaired as the result of consuming an alcoholic beverage or using a drug or narcotic.
Embezzlement: The unlawful misappropriation or misapplication by an offender to his/her own use or purpose of money, property, or some other thing of value entrusted to his/her care, custody or control.
Family Offense: Unlawful nonviolent acts by a family member (or legal guardian) which threaten the physical, mental, or economic well-being or morals of another family member and which are not classifiable as other offenses.
Forgery/Counterfeiting: The altering, copying, or imitating of something without authority or right, with the intent to deceive or defraud by passing the copy as the original.
Fraud: The intentional perversion of the truth for the purpose of inducing another person or other entity in reliance upon it to part with something of value or surrender a legal right.
Kidnap: Commits this when, with intent to interfere substantially with another's personal liberty, and without legal consent a person takes another from one place to another or secretly confines a person in a place where the person is not likely to be found.
Liquor Law: The violation of local laws or ordinances prohibiting the manufacture, sale, purchase, transportation, possession, or use of alcoholic beverages.
Runaway: Is a status offense for Juveniles. When a person under the age of 18 purposefully leaves the home of their legal guardian without consent to do so and fails to return.
Sex Offense: Offenses against chastity, common decency, morals, and the like.
Stolen Property (buy, receive, possess): Buying, receiving, possessing, selling, concealing, or transporting any property with the knowledge that it has been unlawfully taken as by burglary, embezzlement, fraud, larceny, robbery, etc.
Vandalism/Criminal Mischief: Consists of the willful, malicious, or mischievous destruction, injury, disfigurement, or defacement of any public or private property, real or personal, without consent of the owner or person having custody or control, by cutting, tearing, breaking, marking, painting, drawing, converting with filth, or any other means as may be specified by law.
Weapons: The violation of laws or ordinances prohibiting the manufacture, sale, purchase, transportation, possession, concealment, or use of firearms, cutting instruments, explosives, incendiary devices, or other deadly weapons.

Interpreting the Map
Neighborhood Crime Spotter has two unique abilities:

(1) it displays crime types summarized by neighborhood and

(2) allows for concentrations of crime points — points that may be stacked on top of one another, and visually impossible to see —to be displayed using clustering techniques. The clusters are displayed with larger circles with different colors and the total is placed over the center of the point. When the user zooms in or out, the cluster is reset. The clustering statistical technique is based on a K Means clustering algorithm.

Although a single point may be shown (indicated by a dot with the number 1), not all crimes occur at a specific location. In these cases the nearest cross street or block used. For example if a theft occurs from a vehicle that is parked in the street, the nearest cross street is used as the location.

Purpose of Neighborhood CRIME Spotter
Neighborhood CRIME Spotter is a map-based tool for general information about criminal activity within the City of Tigard. It provides a visual representation of where crime has occurred using a twelve month database of crimes that has been created specifically for use on the web. This database is updated with new crime data each month.

The City of Tigard is often referred to as "a place to call home." Many of its 46,000 plus residents have come to appreciate and qualify that statement. Tigard's reputation as a safe community is a result of many things, including proactive, community-oriented law enforcement and the effort of active, informed citizens and neighborhood groups working together. Tigard's history as a city with lower than average crime rate, along with very low incidents of more serious or "stranger to stranger" types of crime make living here desirable. To achieve this, in part, is a result of citizens and business partners in the community taking an interest and working closely with police.