Recently the Hopkinsville Police Department started publishing crime data for the city through CrimeReports.com. Among the positives for this service is the data itself which seems to be posted on a timely basis. CrimeReports.com provides two different views of the data; one is google map-based, the other uses a bar chart, pie chart, and line graph. I’d like to thank the HPD for publishing this information. If there was anything worthy of spending taxpayer dollars it would be this. I think the data is displayed in multiple formats allowing some very interesting analysis.

If this website is so wonderful is there anything wrong with it? Well, I think it falls down in two areas that could be easily fixed. The first and most annoying mistake is that the programmers have written a pop-up to appear the first time the user attempts to drag the map around. Pop-ups of any kind are flat out stupid. There is a reason why pop-up killer functionality is built-in to both Internet Explorer and Firefox. Any programmer that implements such a thing should be sent to a desolate SovietRussian prison in Siberia.

The second defect is with the crime alerts that the website wishes for everyone to sign-up for. I registered with the website soon after seeing it in the Kentucky New Era. Then a couple of days later a crime did occur within the area I specified but I received no email about it. Last night I created another crime alert in the center of the city then I did get email from both locations.

I think CrimeReports.com is an excellent service to have for the city of Hopkinsville. The police Department seems to post new crime reliably and the website provides a variety of ways to view that data. The usefulness of the website is harmed greatly though by that blasted pop-up. I’d also wonder why the email alerts don’t work reliably but that is only a mild problem. 3 of 5 stars