Whether you're relocating to a new city or just a new neighborhood, you'll discover that if you inquire about crime rates, you'll almost always be given a blanket set of figures for the entire metropolitan area. We've all noticed that degrees of safety vary greatly from one neighborhood to the next within any given city and its surrounding suburbs. So citywide reports do little if anything to allay our concerns and make us better-informed buyers. By the same token, if you're a Realtor and your relocating clients ask you about safety in their prospective neighborhood, how accurate will you be if you tell them that the city of 1 million, of which they'll be living merely in a microcosm, had 100 assaults last year? If you're seeking to assure your clients that the neighborhood they're considering is indeed a very safe place to live -- comparatively much safer than those citywide statistics indicate -- then you'll want to have the figures to prove it.

With those needs in mind, Jon Petersen and co-founder Don Craven launched in spring 1997 an online crime statistics directory called CrimeCheck. The site makes the additional leap of searching specific neighborhoods within various metropolitan areas for a breakdown of violent and nonviolent crimes and their corresponding rates. CrimeCheck is about to introduce a new feature that will enable house-hunters and Realtors to find out if any sex offenders live within specific areas, and if so, how many and where.

A.N.: Do you and your co-founder, Don Craven, have any background in law enforcement, or did you work in any arena in which you were exposed to crime statistics?
J.P.: Don Craven and I had a proven track record of identifying data and information sales opportunities, developing the resources to serve the market, and delivering the completed product at a price point and in a format that was both desirable and profitable. We'd established credibility among key industry leaders in the areas of real estate information and consumer credit, among others, and were recognized by many as pioneers in the area of database development and marketing through the success and ultimate sale of Flood Data Services [another venture the two founders pursued prior to CrimeCheck].

A.N.: What was your mission when you launched CrimeCheck last year?
J.P.: We wanted to meet the growing demand for decision-making tools readily accessible on the World Wide Web. Our general approach is to seek out sources of potentially valuable raw data; obtain, enhance and add value to the data through proprietary development methodologies; and deliver user-friendly reports to end-users.

A.N.: How do users obtain crime statistics through your site?
J.P.: CrimeCheck lets users enter an address and receive an annual crime activity report for the area of interest.

A.N.: Was there a single incident that spurred you to start a neighborhood-specific crime statistics search engine?
J.P.: The reason to develop a neighborhood-specific search engine was quite simple. After careful research, we discovered that there was a demand for readily available crime data that was both affordable and easy to interpret. Most crime data prior to CrimeCheck was either too general -- citywide level data, for example -- too expensive, or too hard to interpret.

A.N.: What can a site like yours do for prospective home buyers For Realtors selling homes?
J.P.: Our CrimeCheck reports can save prospective home buyers and Realtors valuable time and effort. Not only can we save them time trying to track down neighborhood crime statistics at the local police department, but we also interpret the data by including a crime rating in the form of a school grade on all reports (A is the best rating; F is the worst rating). Since all reports have a crime rating, a home buyer or Realtor can easily compare the safety of several addresses in a metropolitan area. This is also an invaluable tool for people who are relocating to a new city.

A.N.: When home buyers ask their Realtors for crime rates, where do Realtors typically find that information -- if not for your site? How helpful is that information? Is it usually too broad-based (for example, citywide versus specific neighborhoods) to be of much help to the buyer?
J.P.: In the past, Realtors, for the most part, have simply referred their clients to the local police department because they did not know where to go to track down accurate crime data in a short amount of time. As more Realtors are learning about CrimeCheck, they are beginning to order reports on behalf of their clients. Realtors are recognizing that CrimeCheck is a powerful tool for helping their clients make a home purchasing or rental decision. And the fact is that today's Realtor wants to supply his or her clients with as many useful tools as possible to differentiate themselves in a competitive market.

A.N.: Do citywide statistics give home buyers a clear sense of the degree of safety they can expect in their new neighborhoods? How much variance can exist?
J.P.: Citywide statistics are sufficient for a small town or in the case that the local police department does not release neighborhood crime statistics to the public. However, in large cities, much variance in crime levels can exist between different parts of one city. That is why we insist on gathering sub-city level data for our crime reporting when it is available.

A.N.: You actually "grade" regions based on their violent and nonviolent crime statistics. How do you arrive at those scores? What's your basis for comparison?
J.P.: The report grade compares an area's crime activity to the average crime activity of the surrounding metropolitan area.

A.N.: Are CrimeCheck users able to research just about any neighborhood in the United States? Where do you obtain your statistics? Do you work in conjunction with any other agencies that gather crime statistics?
J.P.: In just a little over a year, Online Data Services has established key contacts at law enforcement agencies in all major U.S. cities. We also work with the FBI, Uniform Crime Reporting Program Directors in many states, and the U.S. Department of Justice.

A.N.: Tell us about the new addition to the CrimeCheck site -- the ability to track sex offenders within specific regions. When is the sex offender addition scheduled to be added and made operational on your site?
J.P.: It's a statewide database of sexual offenders searchable by address. Each search will include such pertinent information as the number of sexual offenders that live in proximity to an address that the user provides, as well as the sex and age of both the victim and offender. Online Data Services is scheduled to add the sex offender addition in mid-1998.

A.N.: Is the sex offender research capability a way to enhance the progress of Megan's law? For those of us who aren't familiar with Megan's law, give us a little background. Is the law applicable on a nationwide basis, or is it up to the state legislatures to decide?
J.P.: Each state is choosing whether or not to pass Megan's law. At this time, there are states which have passed Megan's law, there are states that are currently in the midst of passing Megan's law, and there are states that have not addressed it yet. Because it is up to the individual state, each state also has the option to change it to its liking. Therefore, what Megan's law requires in one state it may not require in another. In the state of Texas, for example, all sex offenders released after Sept. 1, 1995, are required by law to register with the local police department. The registrant must submit a public inquiry report, including the nature of the offense committed, the sex and age of the victim and offender, and general information as to the location of his or her residence.

A.N.: Are Realtors required by law to disclose to home buyers that a sex offender lives in their specific region? Are Realtors given this information by law enforcement officials automatically, or do they have to request it?
J.P.: Realtors are not required by law to disclose to home buyers that a sex offender lives in their neighborhood, and Realtors are not given this information automatically -- they must hunt it down, so to speak, if their clients want it.

A.N.: You've given letter grades -- ranging from A to F -- to neighborhoods across the country. What criteria do you use to determine those grades?
J.P.: The crime activity of a neighborhood in a large metropolitan area is compared to the city average when calculating the crime rating. Therefore, each large metropolitan area has neighborhoods that are "As" and neighborhoods that are "Fs" because it is a relative comparison within each city.

A.N.: Who's using your site, aside from Realtors and home buyers, and about how much traffic/how many orders do you receive per month?
J.P.: Security companies, large companies with many retail stores or franchises across the nation, and insurance and mortgage companies. Since Oct. 15, 1997, the CrimeCheck site has been hit 225,000 times.

A.N.: Are you planning any other additions to your site this year? Any additional information?
J.P.: We also license crime-related content for publication on the World Wide Web, including but not limited to local police blotter, wanted criminals, crime prevention tips, and community press releases. In addition, we create customized crime statistics query applications for clients who have unique needs. For example, we can create an auto theft statistics application for a company whose clients are concerned with auto theft.

A.N.: What has the overall response been to your site?
J.P.: Favorable. Realtors and home buyers are pleased that they can get information in a timely fashion. Security companies and other commercial entities are finding that our national database can point out which of their locations are in high-crime areas, thus helping them make better decisions as far as how much money to spend on security.

Regardless of where they live, until now, home buyers have been on even turf when pursuing crime rate information. Those statistics typically have come with a gatekeeper clause attached. And the vigilant home buyers who finally obtained their desired crime statistics sometimes received conflicting reports from various sources. The Internet has changed all that, however. Online research has returned the power to the consumer. If Jon Petersen and Don Craven get their way, it's going to make for more educated home buyers -- and, ultimately, safer neighborhoods.

Published: March 25, 1998

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