4 ms·

Show HN: Palo Alto Police Arrest Reports

9 points by brianhama 2y ago

Extracts case reports from Palo Alto Police department's daily pdf files and displays cases on a map and in a table on the web. Source code and background on GitHub: brianhama/palo-alto-police-case-reports

yodon 2y ago
Also of interest, a similar site for SF.[0] [0]https://sfpdcalls.com/ https://sfpdcalls.com/
- brianhama 2y ago
  I’d never seen that site before. It’s nice that SF makes that data available in such a friendly format.
  - slater 2y ago
    There used to be various sites that allowed you to listen in on the SFPD frequencies, but they switched to a digital version that you'd have to crack, and they're not handing out access to it
    - brianhama 2y ago
      Palo Alto started encrypting the police radio a few years ago, but a new chief of police was hired last year and reversed the decision and made it public again. Palo Alto cares more about transparency than the average city though.
HenryBemis 2y ago
Whoah.. name, surname, date of birth. I know that USA doesn't have anything as strong as EU has with GDPR (or EU DPR), but damn.. arresting someone doesn't mean that they are guilty, so why out them? Wouldn't it make more sense to have these records public after a conviction?
- brianhama 2y ago
  I agree. I’ve always found it strange that mug shots and arrest information are public.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2y ago
  > arresting someone doesn't mean that they are guilty, so why out them Indeed, they are not guilty and the problem lies with the assumption that they must be guilty because they were arrested. It being a matter of public record that (and where/when/why) they were arrested means their loved ones can know what happened to them when they don't come home (even if that means they have to find the answer themselves, though ideally they wouldn't). Just consider someone very close to you is arrested but there is no public record of that arrest for you to follow up on. What do you do?
vonunov 2y ago
For Dallas PD active calls: Screenshots: https://vgy.me/album/v8fzwq7Z https://vgy.me/album/v8fzwq7Z crontab: https://snippet.host/ymeofo https://snippet.host/ymeofo DB schema (which I'm sure could use some refinement, lol): https://snippet.host/fiyxhr https://snippet.host/fiyxhr query one-liners: https://snippet.host/vouqax https://snippet.host/vouqax

9 points by brianhama 2y ago

yodon 2y ago

Also of interest, a similar site for SF.[0] [0]https://sfpdcalls.com/ https://sfpdcalls.com/

brianhama 2y ago
I’d never seen that site before. It’s nice that SF makes that data available in such a friendly format.
- slater 2y ago
  There used to be various sites that allowed you to listen in on the SFPD frequencies, but they switched to a digital version that you'd have to crack, and they're not handing out access to it
  - brianhama 2y ago
    Palo Alto started encrypting the police radio a few years ago, but a new chief of police was hired last year and reversed the decision and made it public again. Palo Alto cares more about transparency than the average city though.

HenryBemis 2y ago

Whoah.. name, surname, date of birth. I know that USA doesn't have anything as strong as EU has with GDPR (or EU DPR), but damn.. arresting someone doesn't mean that they are guilty, so why out them? Wouldn't it make more sense to have these records public after a conviction?

brianhama 2y ago
I agree. I’ve always found it strange that mug shots and arrest information are public.
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2y ago
> arresting someone doesn't mean that they are guilty, so why out them Indeed, they are not guilty and the problem lies with the assumption that they must be guilty because they were arrested. It being a matter of public record that (and where/when/why) they were arrested means their loved ones can know what happened to them when they don't come home (even if that means they have to find the answer themselves, though ideally they wouldn't). Just consider someone very close to you is arrested but there is no public record of that arrest for you to follow up on. What do you do?

vonunov 2y ago

For Dallas PD active calls: Screenshots: https://vgy.me/album/v8fzwq7Z https://vgy.me/album/v8fzwq7Z crontab: https://snippet.host/ymeofo https://snippet.host/ymeofo DB schema (which I'm sure could use some refinement, lol): https://snippet.host/fiyxhr https://snippet.host/fiyxhr query one-liners: https://snippet.host/vouqax https://snippet.host/vouqax