Seattle Police Department and My Neighborhood Map

In case heard me on the radio today and wanted to see the posts about Seattle.gov's My Neighborhood Map program and the Seattle Police Department's crime statistics, here they are:

SPD Crime Data: ? (Jan. 26)
SPD Crime Data: Still Screwy (Mar. 30)
Seattle.gov's Neighborhood Crime Into: Totally Inaccurate (June 27)

Please note that everyone I've talked to at the city has been really, really nice. I think they're doing their best with limited resources. And I have not had a chance to follow up with the SPD yet (I work full-time and am having a baby in seven weeks, so this little research project has not been a huge priority for me lately).

I mentioned that watching "The Wire" helped prompt my interest in this subject, but I have found absolutely no evidence of corruption or anything like that. It's possible that there's a perfectly good explanation about why the mid-December matricide incident was not showing up in the December numbers last time I checked (even though the woman was pronounced dead at the scene and the King County Medical Examiner's office quickly ruled it a homicide).

My suspicion is that there is a fair amount of clerical error at the SPD and at the city, and that's why the numbers are off.

What I'd like to see:

-- More transparency in the crime statistics. For instance, when the mayor's office announces there were 24 murders in 2007, maybe they could include a link to the names of the victims, or at least the dates of the incidents.

-- More information about how the numbers are collected and what they mean. What does it take for a murder to be counted in the reports as a homicide? I would think that the county medical examiner's word would be good enough. Surely they're not waiting until someone's been convicted in court? Anyway, just a little FAQ that addresses these questions would be great.

-- Independent action by the major news media. Instead of waiting for the mayor to come out with a press release about the number of murders in 2007 and parroting that in a news story, why not go through your own archives and tally up the numbers for yourselves?

-- QA on the published info. If you mix up all the August numbers with all the September numbers, well, someone should catch that. And it should be called out on the site.

-- Better disclaimers about the inaccuracy of the information. If you know it's wrong, just say so. Or take it down until it can be fixed.

Kusina Filipina Mural

I posted some photos of this as a work in progress; now here's the finished work:

Photos from Artopia

We stopped by Artopia very early in the day today, and I took some pictures.





















I loved the Engine Room exhibits, above, and I also loved Bruce Christian Andersen's Carnaval de Monstruos exhibit at Georgetown Tile Works. I hope it sticks around a while; I want to see it again.









The Eagles!



I've been ready for Via Tribunali to open for months now.



The Corson Building too. And we have reservations there tomorrow night.

Seattle.gov's Neighborhood Crime Info: Totally Inaccurate

Last Friday I took the day off and finally followed up on a March post in which I questioned the crime data on the Seattle.gov website's "My Neighborhood Crime Statistics Map" section. I met with Terry Wittman, the manager for the My Neighborhood Map program.

And, yep, it's all screwed up. I totally stand by my original warnings:



I'm sure Wittman's doing her best with the resources available to her. (And, as with most of my meetings at the Municipal Building, I came away feeling not angry but sorry for the people working with such large goals and small staffs -- in her case, two.) But, still, with such wildly flawed results, I wonder how valuable the program really is.

She couldn't tell me exactly why all the numbers I checked up on seemed off, but she had some suggestions, which I'll outline below. She also referred me to Shanna Christie, the head data coordinator at the Seattle Police Department. I have yet to contact her; in fact, I have yet to decide if I want to bother to contact her. This whole thing depresses me.

1. The SPD sometimes has negative numbers for certain crimes in a given month, but the My Neighborhood Crime Statistics Map people ignore these numbers. Negative numbers for crimes are listed if, say, a death listed as a murder in February is found to be accidental in March. The SPD would list that as a +1 for homicide in February and a -1 for homicide in March. However, the My Neighborhood Crime Statistics Map only lists positive numbers; "we don't graph the negatives," Wittman said.

2. The system involves a lot of manual spreadsheet futzing, and this leads to error. For example, Wittman said she thought she accidentally inverted all the crime statistics for the months of August and September 2007, and that's why my neighbor's murder wasn't showing up under September. Oops.

3. There is no QA. She and I looked to see if my neighbor's murder was showing up yet -- she thought it would be listed correctly now -- but it wasn't. And she doesn't know why. There is no one looking over the numbers that are posted to the site. She didn't even realize she'd mixed up all the August numbers with all the September numbers until she saw my post.

4. The SPD posts census tract information using 1990 census tracts instead of 2000 census tracts, like the My Neighborhood Map program does. Wittman said this shouldn't make any difference with Beacon Hill numbers (because our tracts haven't changed), but she does have to do some extra calculations for other neighborhoods. I can only imagine this introduces new levels of error.

So anyway. That gave me some insight as to why the My Neighborhood Crime Statistics Map information can't be trusted at all. But I still don't know why, for instance, the SPD doesn't list this murder in its numbers for December 2007.

I got the feeling that the SPD might have its own issues with data. Wittman explained that it's a very paper-oriented process, with each precinct sending its own numbers to Central, where they are then collated. Apparently they've been making the move to a new computerized system all year long, but they still haven't figured it all out yet, and that's why halfway through this year the SPD site is still saying "Statistics available through December, 2007."

So, basically, don't trust the numbers you see at Seattle.gov. They might be right, they might be wrong -- you'll never know.

Fifth Sexual Assault This Month Near the Jungle

Yesterday a 21-year-old woman was beaten, choked until unconscious, and raped in the Jose Rizal dog park at the north end of Beacon Hill, by the Jungle. This makes at least the fifth sexual assault in this area this month. (See previous post.) Neighborhood activists are asking that women not visit the dog park alone at this time.

A work party is being held this Saturday, 6/28, at 9:00 to cut down some of the brush that allowed the perpetrator to hide until the victim was in close range.

No story on this has been posted at the P-I or Times yet; here is the Q13 story.

Green Space Levy Should Go Toward Green Space

The Jefferson Park Alliance is asking for our help. A City Council committee is working to put a parks and green spaces levy on the ballot in the fall. Unfortunately, even if the levy ends up on the ballot, Jefferson Park and other Southeast parks will still get the shaft unless we can help shape the levy now.

The money currently earmarked for Jefferson Park would barely cover the increased cost of expenses that were already approved in the Pro Parks Levy. In other words, in this $120 million levy, Jefferson Park gets nothing new. However, almost one-tenth of the entire levy would go to building (not green space) upgrades at the Asian Art Museum, including air conditioning. I mean, that's all well and good that the Seattle Art Museum's visitors and collection should be kept cooler, except why should the funding come out of a green space levy, when there's such little money for green space as it is?

Read more about the levy here.

Anyway, the Jefferson Park Alliance is asking that you read the letter below and e-mail parksandgreenspaceslevy@seattle.gov BEFORE TUESDAY, JUNE 24th.

You can contact the Jefferson Park Alliance at JPAlliance@hotmail.com with questions, or post them here.

Hi Neighbors

I am an advocate for the green levy being put together under Council auspices through a 22-member volunteer committee. I am advocating that $3.6 million more be added for Jefferson Park on there (total of $7.6 million), and another $1.8 for other SE Seattle projects that aren't on the list yet. I got really excited about the levy by going to the Great City event at the downtown library earlier this year.

After sitting through the most recent meeting (Tuesday the 17th) I feel totally discouraged. The biggest project on the proposed levy list is to add air conditioning and seismic upgrades to the Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park. The building is owned by Parks and operated by SAM. This project is currently targeted for $11 million, 9% of the total levy of $120 mil. Meantime, literally dozens of smaller parks projects that acquire and develop green space are being bumped off.

I really think that green space advocates need to cry "foul". I am sure SAM needs to get this work done somehow but I totally disagree with using our tiny open space levy for building projects. Air conditioning may be important for art, but there is nothing green about it.

Anyway, I am looking around for other sources of money for museum at the State and Federal level so we can spend our open space and parks money on things that will grow green.

Please write to your colleagues who are concerned about greening Seattle and ask them to request that this project come off the green levy and receive funding from a more appropriate source so we can get the parks projects built. The community center levy proposed for 2010 would be the right spot.

Write today! The last meeting of the committee is next Tuesday so your voice is important right now. Here is the levy committee e-mail:

parksandgreenspaceslevy@seattle.gov

Frederica Merrell
Jefferson Park Alliance

Beacon Solstice Bike Parade

Some North Beacon neighbors are having an informal little bike parade tomorrow. Sounds like fun:

Come have some summer fun at the Beacon Solstice Bike Parade and Potluck, happening on Saturday, June 21st, 4-8pm! We'll gather on the 1700 block of Forest, btwn. 17th and 18th, 1 block east of Beacon Hill Library. There will be potluck dining, bike decorating, face painting, bike parading and live music!

Bring your bikes and a potluck dish to share with a crowd. We'll have drinks and dessert available. In the interest of greener entertainment, bring your own plates and silverware to cut down on paper products (we'll have extras if you forget).