Dallas / Fort Worth Local News

It can track crime in your neighborhood street by street. But, how accurate is the data? As CBS 11 found out, the website may not show you the whole picture.

Trina Botonis loves living in her Plano neighborhood. She says her neighbors are friendly and there's a true community atmosphere. She's known as the protector of the neighborhood and always keeps an eye out for anything suspicious.

"We are on the corner, so that's a big bonus," she said. "My window faces the creek so we see everyone come in and go."

Botonis can't see everything, though, and that's why she's interested in a new street-level crime tracking website called CrimeReports.com. Greg Whisenant runs the website.

"What we're trying to do is arm the public with information that they need to make wise choices in terms of keeping themselves protected," he said.

Whisenant says the site will map out reported crimes near your home over the last two weeks. You can also broaden the time period to as much as 30 days.

"Now that I know what the top three issues are on my street, I can turn my porch light on," he said. "I check every night to make sure my garage is closed, and I put my car in the garage."

There's also a feature that tracks trends in your area. You can see on a bar graph or chart the frequency of a particular crime in your neighborhood.

"What we're really trying to do is create neighborhood level comprehensive crime data," Whisenant said.

Tim Bray is a criminology professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. He says CrimeReports.com does a vital service to the community, but he believes the site doesn't offer the whole picture when it comes to safety. He says the site is a good tool, but there are things missing.

"Folks might review the site and say 'Here's a spot that doesn't have a lot of dots, so it must be safe,'" Bray said. "Well, that's a natural conclusion, but potentially one that's uninformed."

For instance, some police departments don't submit rape reports in order to further protect the victim's identity. And, if you see an "H" for homicide, that might not always mean murder.

"Homicide is when a person kills another not necessarily intentionally, not necessarily criminally," Bray explained. "So, there are incidents that might get included in a database that aren't really reflective of what people would think of as a crime."

Charlotte Holzmeister with the Plano Police Department explains the national U.C.R. - or Unified Crime Report - dictates how incidents are categorized.

"A fatality accident would show up under homicide even though it's actually not what the average person would call homicide," she said.

Bray says citizens should know that the site only provides data that police departments choose to submit.

"Where we have to be careful is that the public don't take it for more than it is," he said.

Trina Botonis says she'll still check her neighborhood, and hopes it'll help her stay vigilant.

"I am a protector, and I feel it's my job sometimes," she said. "People want to know who is in their neighborhood."

There are more than a dozen North Texas police departments that submit reports to the site. They are: Hurst, Plano, Dallas, Richland Hills, University Park, The Colony, Farmers Branch, Grapevine, Weatherford, Watauga, Azle, North Richland Hills, Bedford, Rowlett, Decatur, Murphy, Euless, Roanoke, and Highland Village. The departments pay anywhere from $100 - $200 to participate in the site.

It's a free service for you to use. You can also set up an email alert that will send you an email when a crime happens in your area. To check it out for yourself, click here.

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