Data

Author
Affiliation

Hung Kit William Chiu

UCSB Econ

Published

May 6, 2025

Modified

May 27, 2025

This project bears resemblance to some other open-source projects on police data, such as OpenPoliceData, Police Data Initiative, and the Stanford Open Policing Project, however, this project has been an independent effort that focuses on

  1. crime incidents (rather than policing efforts such as stops or use of force),

  2. harmonizing crime categories across agencies and time,

  3. mapping incidents to Census geographic units.

The latter two objectives make the cleaned data particularly useful for research in the social sciences. The project is currently semi-closed-source, but with plans of going open-source subject to the research progress.

Location of cities included for analysis

Survey of cities

More than 350 cities (or “incorporated places”) in the US have been surveyed to acquire crime data from their data portals. An open data portal is typically set up and run by the city (or sometimes county) to publish data of public interest. The local police departments sometimes have their own data portals, or they publish data through their respective cities’ portals. The 350 cities represent all US cities with somewhere above 100,000 population in 2023 (the cutoff is not exact due to there being multiple population estimates). The cutoff of 100,000 is by all means not convenient and is used on purpose to leverage the large scale, publicly available data that has been overlooked by researchers. Researchers have a tendency to stop data collection as soon as they have enough statistical power, and the author of this project is dismissive of such practice. Below presents the survey result. Population estimates are taken from the 5-year American Community Survey. Start Date is the approximate time when the data starts to have substantial coverage.

Ready-to-use data

After cleaning and linking to Census variables, the product looks like the following, with New York City (NYC) in 2022 for demonstration. NYC is made up of 5 boroughs, each also being a county (Bronx - Bronx County, Brooklyn - Kings County, Manhattan - New York County, Queens - Queens County, and Staten Island - Richmond County), thus the city conveniently becomes a “nested” geographic unit.

IncidentYear GEOID City Aggravated Assault All Other Offenses Arson Burglary Counterfeiting-Forgery Criminal Homicide Curfew-Loitering-Vagrancy Disorderly Conduct Driving Under the Influence Drug-Narcotic Family Offense Fraud Gambling Kidnapping-Abduction Larceny-Theft Liquor Law Motor Vehicle Theft Non-reportable Other Assault Pornography-Obscene Material Prostitution Robbery Sex Offense Stolen Property Trespass of Real Property Unclassifiable Vandalism Weapon Law pop pop2 nonHispCt white black AIandAN asian NHandOPI hisp wtHisp blkHisp nomoveCt nomove singleFamCt singleFam povertyCt poverty incAgg foodStampCt foodStamp highLaborCt highUnemp rentCt rentAgg whitePct blkPct asianPct hispPct nomovePct singleFamPct povertyPct incPerCap foodStampPct highUnempPct rentAvg
2022 36005000100 NYC 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4446 4446 3274 1098 2000 9 123 0 1172 800 64 4446 1871 0 0 0 0 19849600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.2469636 0.4498426 0.0276653 0.2636077 0.4208277 NA NA 4464.597 NA NA NA
2022 36005000200 NYC 21 74 1 4 1 0 0 15 0 3 0 2 0 0 72 0 8 5 33 0 0 13 0 3 0 0 25 2 4870 4870 1761 83 1281 0 299 0 3109 667 192 4870 4618 4863 67 1076 68 163783100 1425 196 423 0 567 1004600 0.0170431 0.2630390 0.0613963 0.6383984 0.9482546 0.0137775 0.0631970 33631.027 0.1375439 0.0000000 1771.7813
2022 36005000400 NYC 13 54 0 5 1 0 0 9 0 1 0 1 0 0 74 0 17 1 26 0 0 6 0 1 0 0 17 1 6257 6257 2045 283 1559 0 103 0 4212 507 338 6152 5680 6238 193 1516 109 240996800 2309 384 408 0 900 1320900 0.0452293 0.2491609 0.0164616 0.6731661 0.9232770 0.0309394 0.0718997 38516.350 0.1663058 0.0000000 1467.6667
2022 36005001600 NYC 29 66 0 6 3 0 0 23 3 3 0 12 0 0 171 0 10 10 42 0 0 24 0 2 2 0 15 11 6177 6177 2670 106 2132 213 148 0 3507 445 160 6153 5617 5952 149 1616 225 172386200 2205 955 469 50 1751 2194900 0.0171604 0.3451514 0.0239599 0.5677513 0.9128880 0.0250336 0.1392327 27907.755 0.4331066 0.1066098 1253.5123
2022 36005001900 NYC 43 150 0 68 10 1 0 32 10 2 0 18 0 1 152 0 58 51 79 0 0 23 0 3 3 0 106 8 4064 4064 2346 508 1298 34 9 342 1718 212 253 4017 3439 3556 251 837 193 129047100 1408 404 456 25 1337 2408800 0.1250000 0.3193898 0.0022146 0.4227362 0.8561115 0.0705849 0.2305854 31753.716 0.2869318 0.0548246 1801.6455
2022 36005002000 NYC 39 191 2 18 2 0 0 56 1 25 0 12 0 2 88 0 22 11 82 0 0 20 0 3 3 0 46 9 8376 8376 3217 42 2738 0 0 0 5159 1221 514 8350 8159 8346 603 1961 549 228090100 3642 2088 1131 4 3144 2116300 0.0050143 0.3268863 0.0000000 0.6159265 0.9771257 0.0722502 0.2799592 27231.387 0.5733114 0.0035367 673.1234
2022 36005002300 NYC 17 68 1 6 2 0 0 18 0 1 0 2 0 0 22 0 6 5 28 0 0 7 0 0 1 0 22 2 4528 4528 1556 7 1499 0 0 0 2972 483 437 4528 4285 4523 397 1097 387 60099900 1923 1044 307 75 1923 1437000 0.0015459 0.3310512 0.0000000 0.6563604 0.9463339 0.0877736 0.3527803 13272.946 0.5429017 0.2442997 747.2699
2022 36005002400 NYC 9 13 1 2 1 0 0 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 8 0 2 3 9 0 0 7 0 0 0 0 6 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
2022 36005002500 NYC 56 135 2 23 12 1 0 31 3 37 1 7 0 0 316 0 17 18 109 0 0 42 0 4 4 0 47 18 5642 5642 1496 305 1129 0 0 0 4146 746 433 5562 4980 5431 266 1306 478 80228200 1944 841 650 83 1843 2124900 0.0540588 0.2001063 0.0000000 0.7348458 0.8953614 0.0489781 0.3660031 14219.816 0.4326132 0.1276923 1152.9571
2022 36005002701 NYC 22 67 1 7 3 1 0 41 1 11 0 7 0 0 51 0 6 7 43 0 0 19 0 3 0 1 22 6 3335 3335 949 16 917 0 16 0 2386 161 325 3270 3172 3329 299 793 411 40494700 1159 670 246 65 1136 1064500 0.0047976 0.2749625 0.0047976 0.7154423 0.9700306 0.0898168 0.5182850 12142.339 0.5780846 0.2642276 937.0599
2022 36005002702 NYC 25 37 0 7 3 1 0 18 5 5 0 6 0 0 33 0 7 8 38 0 0 9 0 2 0 0 22 6 5000 5000 1422 7 1359 0 0 0 3578 207 243 4862 4277 4479 300 1034 469 78081600 1530 813 504 50 1491 1784900 0.0014000 0.2718000 0.0000000 0.7156000 0.8796791 0.0669792 0.4535783 15616.320 0.5313725 0.0992063 1197.1160
2022 36005002800 NYC 19 79 0 5 3 0 0 17 3 1 0 8 0 0 115 0 24 13 51 0 0 20 0 1 1 1 33 6 5230 5230 3390 31 3359 0 0 0 1840 437 104 5196 5173 5225 275 1225 29 197797100 2542 252 464 0 2306 2756600 0.0059273 0.6422562 0.0000000 0.3518164 0.9955735 0.0526316 0.0236735 37819.713 0.0991345 0.0000000 1195.4033
2022 36005003100 NYC 17 49 0 8 3 0 0 21 1 1 0 6 0 0 69 0 22 3 23 0 0 10 0 0 0 1 26 2 2559 2559 1090 36 831 0 146 0 1469 398 146 2519 2487 2559 369 778 127 58765300 1031 488 280 114 900 1366800 0.0140680 0.3247362 0.0570535 0.5740524 0.9872965 0.1441970 0.1632391 22964.166 0.4733269 0.4071429 1518.6667
2022 36005003300 NYC 14 42 2 3 4 1 0 23 2 0 0 3 0 1 33 0 8 9 25 0 0 9 0 0 2 0 21 4 3559 3559 1262 85 1081 0 0 0 2297 384 233 3559 3484 3424 392 780 327 49035800 1220 704 180 0 1058 1090600 0.0238831 0.3037370 0.0000000 0.6454060 0.9789267 0.1144860 0.4192308 13777.971 0.5770492 0.0000000 1030.8129
2022 36005003500 NYC 27 51 0 1 3 0 0 19 4 5 0 7 0 0 63 0 17 6 47 0 0 12 0 2 3 0 34 1 3899 3899 919 112 705 0 0 0 2980 561 893 3876 3685 3855 487 1128 292 77401900 1478 754 351 0 1420 1832400 0.0287253 0.1808156 0.0000000 0.7642985 0.9507224 0.1263294 0.2588652 19851.731 0.5101488 0.0000000 1290.4225
2022 36005003700 NYC 14 18 0 3 3 0 0 5 2 5 0 7 0 0 28 0 7 14 18 0 0 12 0 1 0 0 15 6 331 331 66 15 51 0 0 0 265 30 85 305 305 324 23 80 0 6280500 188 102 0 0 188 119800 0.0453172 0.1540785 0.0000000 0.8006042 1.0000000 0.0709877 0.0000000 18974.320 0.5425532 NA 637.2340
2022 36005003800 NYC 3 16 0 1 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 11 0 1 2 10 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 4 1 1182 1182 228 16 176 0 36 0 954 450 24 1135 1075 1150 43 304 33 44416500 366 49 156 11 214 281400 0.0135364 0.1489002 0.0304569 0.8071066 0.9471366 0.0373913 0.1085526 37577.411 0.1338798 0.0705128 1314.9533
2022 36005003900 NYC 67 135 0 15 18 0 0 53 14 54 0 23 0 0 133 0 16 30 98 0 0 29 178 2 1 0 57 21 6227 6227 462 155 224 68 15 0 5765 674 122 6227 6042 6103 259 1131 390 129275100 2330 1544 819 50 2247 2761800 0.0248916 0.0359724 0.0024089 0.9258070 0.9702907 0.0424381 0.3448276 20760.414 0.6626609 0.0610501 1229.1055
2022 36005004001 NYC 7 28 0 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 28 0 13 2 15 0 0 7 0 0 0 0 11 0 1409 1409 609 60 158 17 343 0 800 145 36 1399 1364 1409 26 359 36 55978300 529 76 123 13 293 444600 0.0425834 0.1121363 0.2434351 0.5677786 0.9749821 0.0184528 0.1002786 39729.099 0.1436673 0.1056911 1517.4061
2022 36005004100 NYC 44 151 2 13 5 1 0 42 0 21 0 4 0 0 88 0 12 9 88 0 0 21 0 3 2 2 57 15 6583 6583 1982 30 1896 0 56 0 4601 1029 814 6534 5924 6482 197 1563 540 115443200 2444 1159 494 0 2260 2030100 0.0045572 0.2880146 0.0085068 0.6989215 0.9066422 0.0303919 0.3454894 17536.564 0.4742226 0.0000000 898.2743

For any given years (or groups of years, or groups of months if needed) and any given crimes, snapshots like the following can be produced using mapView,

Copyright © April 2025. Hung Kit Chiu. Please do not circulate outside of UCSB Econ.