09/03/09
According to St. Petersburg Police Chief, Charles Harmon, the city is looking forward ''to building stronger relationships with citizens, as we share crime information and work together to prevent and reduce crime in our community. CrimeReports is enabling us to get crime information to our citizens quickly, easily, and affordably.''
Across the country, law enforcement agencies have shown an increasing interest in web 2.0 technology and social networking tools as a way to combat crime and catch criminals. Since Obama's administration’s called to ''open data at all levels of government and law enforcement'', CrimeReports has experienced a rapid increase in the use of their network and has made the organization a leader in online crime-mapping industry.
According to Greg Whisenant, Founder and CEO of CrimeReports.com, “Not only is this a milestone for CrimeReports, but our growth is indicative of a larger push by law enforcement agencies to inform and communicate with their communities. We simply supply law enforcement agencies with cost-effective, easy-to-use tools to accomplish their goals.''
CrimeReports was launched in mid-2007, and has grown to be one of the “largest and most comprehensive online crime mapping services in the world.'' The network has given law enforcement agencies the medium to communicate cost effectively with local citizens. Earlier this year, CrimeReports announced a $7.2 million joint funding venture between Austin Ventures and Spring Central enabling the network to expand its operations in the public safety software market.
