Mayor Ballantyne and Somerville Police Department Announce Expanded Data Sets and Tools on City’s Open Data Portal

Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and the Somerville Police Department (SPD) are making it easier for residents to access police data in Somerville. In collaboration with the City’s Department of Racial and Social Justice (RSJ) and the SomerStat Office of Innovation and Analytics, SPD is now publishing four updated or expanded police data sets to the City’s Open Data Portal. All data sets will now include new interactive data visualizations. These updates build on the administration’s goals to modernize policing in Somerville and expand transparency with the Somerville Police Department. 

Visitors to the Data Portal will find more data overall as well as more frequently updated crash data. The four data sets — Crime Reports, Computer Aided Dispatch, Traffic Citations, and Motor Vehicle Crashes — will be continuously updated with new data daily, and the amount of data reported is expanding. Previously, only four property crime types were reported. Now, the new “Crime Reports” data set will expand to cover 48 types of crimes against property, persons, and society. Likewise, the “Calls for Service” data available was previously limited to 30 quality of life and traffic enforcement call types. The new “Calls for Service” data set now expands reporting to include 144 call types.

Access to motor vehicle crash data will also improve. Previously, the “Motor Vehicle Crashes” data set was a historical data set that ended in April 2018. The new “Motor Vehicle Crashes” data set will backfill data starting from May 2018 and will be continuously updated with current data going forward. The historical data set will remain viewable online.  

“I want to thank our Police and Racial and Social Justice Departments especially for driving this initiative forward. As we work to build Public Safety for All and strive for the Vision Zero goal of no deaths or serious injuries on our streets, providing greater access to crime, traffic violation, and crash data, will allow our community to work alongside us to achieve our shared goals,” said Mayor Ballantyne. “Greater transparency builds better community outcomes.” 

“The Somerville Police is committed not only to keeping our community safe but also to continually evolving our efforts to incorporate best practices. Transparency is an important best practice that advances our goals to keep the community informed of crimes and crashes in their neighborhoods and police activity to address them. I want to thank the Racial and Social Justice, SomerStat, and SPD Crime Analysis departments for helping us get this data online and making it accessible,” said Chief Charlie Femino.  

Alongside the updates, each data set can now be explored with new interactive visualizations that include maps by census block. To increase understanding of the data, the data sets will also be accompanied by a unique “Data Dictionary” that provides background for each data set and defines specific terminology about each data field. 

Visit the City of Somerville Open Data Portal at data.somervillema.gov.   

Persons with disabilities who need auxiliary aids and services for effective communication (i.e., CART, ASL), written materials in alternative formats, or reasonable modifications in policies and procedures in order to access the programs, activities, and meetings of the City of Somerville should please contact Adrienne Pomeroy in advance at 617-625-6600 x 2059 or apomeroy@somervillema.gov.   

Interpretation into any language is available upon advance request (at least seven days in advance) by contacting the SomerViva Office of Immigrant Affairs at somervillema.gov/ContactSomerViva or calling 311 at 617-666-3311.