Animanialmanac t1_iu75egk wrote on October 29, 2022 at 1:45 AM

Reply to comment by agentxstealth in Ever felt unsafe walking along the streets of Baltimore late at night? by agentxstealth

Crime is reported more in certain neighborhoods, and unreported or underreported more in other neighborhoods. Using the information from police-confirmed crime database would increase the disparity. Read up on the Black Butterfly. It’s disingenuous, if not dangerous, to provide something based on flawed information.

agentxstealth OP t1_iu7aidp wrote on October 29, 2022 at 2:27 AM

I would only see this being an issue if the user is traveling between multiple neighborhoods that cross into those underreported areas. The safest route is calculated by compared the relative safety of each route to each other based on proximity to local crimes, so if the app is used in neighborhoods with a decent reporting rate I don't think it would be disingenuous at all. The safest route is not being calculated by comparing different neighborhoods to each other, rather the routes that are all within one neighborhood.

Animanialmanac t1_iu7bxyn wrote on October 29, 2022 at 2:40 AM

Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods, the safety of each environment varies block by block as well as neighborhood by neighborhood. Read any post asking for safety information for a specific neighborhood you will see responses indicating a certain neighborhood is safe “above XYZ street” or “until you get three blocks from ABC Blvd”. Downvote all you want, it’s poorly designed and doesn’t take the reality of the city into consideration.

agentxstealth OP t1_iu7d6ze wrote on October 29, 2022 at 2:50 AM

As I stated in my last reply, the safest route is being calculated by comparing each route to each other, not by examining specific neighborhoods. As long as the route does not exclusively fall in a neighborhood where no crimes are being reported, a reasonable safety score can be calculated. I agree that there are some crimes that are not being reported, but no app can reliably get such data since it is unreported. I'm also working on adding a feature where users can manually report local crimes and then factor that into the safety algorithm. It's your choice if you want to download the app though, but there are definitely many people who could benefit from it.

Animanialmanac t1_iu7hoew wrote on October 29, 2022 at 3:32 AM

I think user supplied crime data would have the potential to be even more disingenuous, given the likelihood that different demographics would respond to and comment about crime differently. Simply food for thought.