Why IdahoFallz.com was created, part ii
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the newsletter or RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
IdahoFallz.com was also partly inspired by a string of unreported car burglaries around Ammon and the Grand Teton Mall shopping areas.
Some family members dined at a restaurant on a Friday evening, with their car parked right up to 17th street and under a streetlight. When they returned, their van’s passenger-side window had been smashed and a purse stolen. While they waited for the police, their kid called and said someone found the purse’s contents strewn across several hundred meters of Lincoln road. The cell phone was smashed into millions of pieces across the road.
The thieves used the debit card for gas at the station on the corner of 17th and Hitt (which coincidentally does not have cameras), then got denied at another location because the bank was notified quickly.
The cops admitted there had been several similar burglaries in the area at that time, and they suspected meth addicts were doing it. I was shocked since the problem had not been publicized. I surmise the police were not releasing details or their suspicions because the Post Register got on their case about not warning people about the Kate Curley Park stabbing a couple months ago.
So here we had a crime trend in Idaho Falls that few knew about because the police were keeping it to themselves. They probably did it in the interest of protecting the strong retailers in that area. Reports of meth addicts targeting these cars could dampen shopping activities.
I was frustrated because the better solution seemed to be the opposite: alert the public, educate people to watch for suspicious parking lot activities, and encourage citizens to quickly report break-ins.
I wished there as a method that ordinary citizens could report and identify trends that our traditional ‘powers that be’ were not publicizing. IdahoFallz.com was conceived with this in mind. Anyone can write comments or chatbox statements about disparate incidents, and readers will be able to spot the trends that our officials will not admit are happening.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Vote:
0 
0 I did not realize that. I would still want them to not just published, but aggregated into a city map, then played over time so you see blips appearing on the map as burglaries occured. It would seem a technological way to spot trends that others may not be able to just from reports. I realize that would take some more programming can-do than the policr probably have right now, but hey it’s an idea.
As for my family member, she got out and debated taking her purse in, then stuck it clear under the passenger side seat. They figured the burglars were watching because that was the only thing grabbed, nothing else was ruffled.
It just seemed so brazen, parked right on 17th street under a street light at 8PM on a busy Friday night.
Regardless of the number of burglaries occurring everyday, it was the cops themselves who mentioned there was a raash of burglaries in that area and they suspected it was being done by meth addicts. Hearing the cops mention it offhand and either not releasing it to our local media or our local media not reporting it was frustrating to me. Hence the idea of enabling local citizens to report incidents, behaviors, and trends themselves.
Anyone know how a crime aggregator could be programmed as I described above?
Leave Your Comment
Our Community's Comment Guidelines:- Please stay polite and on topic.
- Your email will never be published.
- No profanity or euphemisms for profanity.
- No personal attacks, name-calls, put-downs, or baiting other guests, races, genders, or religions.
- Express opinions, facts, logic, and reasoning; just don’t argue for argument’s sake.
- No commercial links (unless absolutely relevant to the discussion) and no religious proselytizing.
- No religious discussions (for or against). Go to http://religiondebates.blogspot.com for religious discussions.
- Use the "I" word as much as possible to demonstrate responsibility.
- Limit yourself to using one name per thread to demonstrate responsibility.
- If you think a comment is inappropriate, ask Joe to review it.
chill, gato, it ain't worth getting your purty fur messed up
Loading ...
Vote:
Police don’t advertise vehicle burglaries because if they did they would be doing nearly every day. There are several vehicle burglaries a week, often several a day. Once in a while, like say every two weeks, there will be a spike and ten or more will get hit at once in one area. But its so run of the mill that even the news doesn’t care unless its a slow news day or there is a particularly large spike.
It all comes down to common sense:
1. Don’t leave something in your car that you don’t want stolen. It takes 3 seconds to smash your window and grab that purse / cd case / duffle bag off the floor. Take the stuff you want to keep with you or put it in the trunk. If you leave it up front you may as well put a sign in your window saying “Please steal from me.”
2. Lock your doors.
3. If you don’t want to do #2 then don’t leave anything in your car.