Red Pins

Feb 5, 2008

posted by Shelley

For everyone that uses Google maps, you already know how a little red pin appears on the map for whatever it is you’ve searched to find. In Baltimore — they have their own map of murders. The map key includes, asphyxiation, blunt force, shooting, stabbing and pending/unknown — and you can even search by district, race, age and gender. Now how cool is that?

I’m wondering how hard it would be to create something similar for my hometown. Not murders of course (although we’ve probably had more of those in the past couple years than the previous 100), but maybe we could red-pin meth manufacturers and registered sex offenders. We seem to have our share of those. This new map would certainly draw as much attention as the Jackson County property tax site did during the rush — you know, when everyone was attempting to find out how much their neighbor paid and if they were delinquent. I’m thinking business ads and spin-offs for neighboring towns…