ABSTRACT
While maps of data are useful, their ability to show incident-level information is quite limited. They tend to show broad trends, where crime happened in a city, rather than provide information about specific crime incidents. While broad trends are important, there are significant drawbacks about being unable to get important information about an incident without having to check the data. An interactive map bridges this gap by showing trends while allowing one to zoom into individual incidents and see information about each incident. Interactive maps are popular in large police departments, such as Philadelphia and New York City. They allow easy understanding of geographic patterns in the data and, importantly, allow such access to people who do not have the technical skills necessary to interact with the data itself. If nothing else, learning interactive maps may help one with a future job.
