Overland Park Crime Map

The crime map provided by the Overland Park police department at Overland Park Crime Map at http://gis.opkansas.org/Mapping/pubcrime/pub_crime.asp?ms=pub_crime_sdehighlights some interesting (and disturbing) trends in law enforcement in this community and various elements of the map are discussed further below.

Helpful Elements of the Map.

The first thing the casual surfer might notice about this map is its zoom feature that allows the user to zoom in and out to place the neighborhoods and larger community in context. The color-coded backgrounds that reflect the type of land use involved (i.e., business, public, multi-family, etc.) was another helpful element identified.

Elements that Detract from Its Usefulness.

Besides the blocky typeface used in the map (discussed further below) and notwithstanding that the police department provides definitions of the types of crimes reflected by the red dots on the crime map, there is no way to know what types of crimes are involved simply by examining the map. Furthermore, there is no way information reflected in the map that provides historic trending data for the types of crimes these neighborhoods tend to experience over time.

Possible Improvements for Readability.

The typeface used for the map labels appears to be from a 1960s punch-card program. While it is clear that the application used to generate this map was customized for Overland Park, it is also clear that a little more effort could easily produce a better typeface for this map. Furthermore, by color-coding the types of crimes with the corresponding dots on the crime map, it would be a straightforward matter to identify areas with high rates of specific types of crimes.

Likes and Dislikes about the Map.

Likes: "Zoomability" and interactivity.

Dislikes: Blocky typeface and inability to discern crime trends by type.