2019 Gumbo final - Book - Page 27
Doctor to Detective
Only F's for Fighting Crime
SU Technology and Entrepreneurship Professor
James Davis hopes to make Baton Rouge
residents and University students aware of
potential dangers through an app that reports where and
when crimes happen each day.
The free app, BTR Crime, was first released in 2015. It
opens a map of Baton Rouge on the user’s iPhone and
drops pins where a crime has been committed. Upon
clicking a pin, users can find out what type of crime was
committed, whether it be a robbery, assault or homicide.
The app also gives the incident number with each pin so
users can seek out more information on a specific crime.
“I built [the app] for me and the types of the things I
would want to know,” Davis said. “If you ask me what I
hope [anyone else] can get out of it, [I’d say] something
similar. How safe is my community?”
The app helps residents gain a sense of how safe their
areas are, and future residents can find out which
neighborhoods are the safest to live.
The only other way a resident can get this information
is directly through the Open Data Portal from the Baton
Rouge Police Department, but it can be time-consuming
and not as efficient.
The app has also caused a bit of concern among users
who did not previously know the extent of crime in the
city.
For instance, as of Sept. 4, there have been 262
attempted homicides already reported in 2018, which
averages about one homicide every day, according to the
app.
“I’m not naive,” Davis said. I know there’s evil in the
world. If you asked me to guess how many homicides
there were [this year] in Baton Rouge, I would not have
guessed [262].”
BTR Crime is free in the iPhone app store, but is not
available on other devices.
“I made [BTR Crime] for myself,” Davis said. “I have
an iPhone. No one has asked me to [make an Android
version]. When I first released it onto the app store, I
thought maybe [BTR Crime] would get some attention.
Maybe someone would take notice and say, ‘Hey, would
you be interested in adding some additional features or
making additional versions?’ No one took notice until
recently.”
“If you go out and look at the Open Data Portal, it’s just
not very user-friendly,” Davis said. “[With BTR Crime,]
you get a quick bird’s eye view of everything in a format
and on a platform that I think we as a society are
comfortable with.”
LSU Professor James David develops a crime app available for use on
Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018 in Campbell B. Hodges Hall.
Story // Benjamin Holden
Photo // Christa Moran
Design // Briley Slaton
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