Take Action: LAPD Removed Crime Location Data. Here's Why It Matters.
Skip to main content
Take Action: LAPD Removed Crime Location Data. Here's Why It Matters.
Get link
Other Apps
By
SpotCrime
June 03, 2026
Dear SpotCrime Subscriber,
For years, residents across Los Angeles relied on public crime data to stay informed about safety in their neighborhoods.
That transparency has now disappeared.
The Los Angeles Police Department has significantly reduced the availability and usefulness of public crime data during its transition to a new records system. Specifically, it removed block-level crime location information from its open crime data feed, making it effectively impossible for the public to determine where crimes occurred.
For more than a decade, SpotCrime has helped Los Angeles residents stay informed by turning public crime data into alerts, maps, and neighborhood awareness tools, Millions of alerts have been delivered to families, commuters, business owners, journalists, researchers, and community members trying to make informed decisions about safety.
Now, that flow of information is being restricted.
What makes this especially troubling is that independent journalists and watchdog organizations have also raised serious concerns about inconsistencies and gaps in LAPD's publicly available crime data. Public records requests have produced delays, incomplete responses, and shifting explanations.
Transparency should not disappear when technology changes.
Public crime data belongs to the public.
When timely crime information is reduced, delayed, or stripped of location detail, communities lose the ability to understand what is happening around them. Residents become less informed. Journalists lose oversight tools. Researchers lose accountability mechanisms. And public trust erodes.
We believe the people of Los Angeles deserve timely public crime reporting, restoration of block-level crime location information, transparency around data changes and delays, and accountability from leadership.
If you believe the same, contact Los Angeles city officials and demand the restoration of block-level address locations to the LAPD open crime data feed.
Chief Jim McDonnell<br>https://www.lapdonline.org/command-staff/chief-jim-mcdonnell/<br>Email: 23297@lapd.online
Los Angeles Police Department<br>https://www.lapdonline.org/contact-us/<br>Email: contact.lapdonline@lapd.online
Board of Police Commissioners<br>https://www.lapdonline.org/police-commission/function-and-role-of-the-board-of-police-commissioners/
Los Angeles City Council<br>Email: https://lacity.gov/directory#elected-officials
Los Angeles Office of the Inspector General<br>https://www.oig.lacity.org/<br>Email: oigcomplaint@lapd.online
Transparency only works when the public demands it.
Sincerely,
The SpotCrime Team
crime<br>crime data<br>LAPD<br>los angeles<br>open data<br>police transparency
Get link
Other Apps
Comments
Post a Comment
Popular posts from this blog
SpotCrime Weekly Reads: Public safety workforce, transparency, juvenile crime
By
SpotCrime
October 02, 2025
Police data, expanding public safety workforce, tax increases to strengthen public safety, TN crime lab backlog, cyber crime economy, juvenile crime, US lowest murder rate, FBI collects non fatal shooting data, toll of lethal gun violence, using technology to solve crimes faster, facial recognition technology, NJ and police transparency, Minneapolis transparency, campus police secrecy at private colleges, America's aging prison population, and more... POLICE CONDUCT The Quiet Revolution. Why Data Became the Most Important Tool in the Field (IACP Police Chief Magazine) Moss Point PD to lose chief, more than half its officers. Here’s why, and what’s next (The Sun Herald) Expanding the Public Safety Workforce (American Progress) Milwaukee Mayor’s Twin Public Safety Puzzles (Governing) Des Moines City Council looks to tax increases to strengthen public safety response (Waterland Blog) Tennessee crime lab at max capacity, backlog to grow without intervention: Re...
Read more
SpotCrime Weekly Reads: Police transparency, campus violence, crim-tech
By
SpotCrime
December 18, 2025
DC chief manipulated crime data, active warrant arrest scam, school shootings lasting impact, HI gun deaths, underreported campus sexual assaults, gunshot detection, AI used to improve police data, drones as first responders, surveillance camera plan, police transparency, license plate readers, drone transparency, prison health worker vacancies, and more... POLICE CONDUCT AV Remarks on Policing for Preventing and Solving Crime Before the Washington State House of Representatives’ Community Safety Committee, December 4, 2025 (Arnold Ventures) House Oversight Committee report alleges DC police chief manipulated crime data (CNN) CRIME RATE Get the Facts: Is Venezuela a primary drug trafficker to the United States? (WCVB) No, you don't have an active warrant...