Crime Map in Huntsville? (Birmingham, Montgomery: 2015, crime rates, high school)

[HB2HSV]

It looks like Huntsville/ Madison crime report is not on the national crime map database. Can someone provide me a link with the local database?

[Conner97]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

It looks like Huntsville/ Madison crime report is not on the national crime map database. Can someone provide me a link with the local database?

I always wondered about this as well. I first got interested in this when there were a lot of shootings in my area. They were never on the news so I checked for crime maps. There were maps on a site called [domain blocked due to spam] when I was in high school around 2014 that was pretty accurate and included Huntsville. It was detailed from shootings, to burglary, robbery, theft, vandalism, etc. I don’t think that feature exists for that site any longer.
As odd as tho may be, I don’t think there are any crime maps for Huntsville that are updated regularly. On SpotCrime, there seem to be randomly selected incidents from news articles that are months apart. Even Madison seems to have crime maps that include incidents that aren’t in the news and get a decent bit of updating. I don’t know why Huntsville has nothing like this, I used to be suspicious that they didn’t want their dirty laundry being exposed because the maps and weekly police blotter seemed to disappear around late 2014-2015, which was the beginning of Huntsville’s most recent growth spurt. I wouldn’t give that much credibility though since it was onc of my random speculations years ago.
It is very strange though, that cities that are smaller, and cities that are bigger with much more crime have these sort of maps that are regularly updated, but no Huntsville.

[MisterEd51]

Moderator cut: link removed, competitor site

[HB2HSV]

Originally Posted by Conner97

I always wondered about this as well. I first got interested in this when there were a lot of shootings in my area. They were never on the news so I checked for crime maps. There were maps on a site called [domain blocked due to spam] when I was in high school around 2014 that was pretty accurate and included Huntsville. It was detailed from shootings, to burglary, robbery, theft, vandalism, etc. I don’t think that feature exists for that site any longer.
As odd as tho may be, I don’t think there are any crime maps for Huntsville that are updated regularly. On SpotCrime, there seem to be randomly selected incidents from news articles that are months apart. Even Madison seems to have crime maps that include incidents that aren’t in the news and get a decent bit of updating. I don’t know why Huntsville has nothing like this, I used to be suspicious that they didn’t want their dirty laundry being exposed because the maps and weekly police blotter seemed to disappear around late 2014-2015, which was the beginning of Huntsville’s most recent growth spurt. I wouldn’t give that much credibility though since it was onc of my random speculations years ago.
It is very strange though, that cities that are smaller, and cities that are bigger with much more crime have these sort of maps that are regularly updated, but no Huntsville.

Conner, Thanks for your input. Although the moderator deleted your link, I was able to see from your text to go to SpotCrime dot com for details. That was what I looking for although not sure how complete the database is. One trick is one needs to be more specific in terms of address and not just "huntsville, AL", but "xxxx road, Huntsville, AL" instead.

Surprisingly, Madison has plenty of "petty crimes" such as theft and burglary but no major violent crimes like "shooting" in certain parts of Huntsville.

[Conner97]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

Conner, Thanks for your input. Although the moderator deleted your link, I was able to see from your text to go to SpotCrime dot com for details. That was what I looking for although not sure how complete the database is. One trick is one needs to be more specific in terms of address and not just "huntsville, AL", but "xxxx road, Huntsville, AL" instead.

Surprisingly, Madison has plenty of "petty crimes" such as theft and burglary but no major violent crimes like "shooting" in certain parts of Huntsville.

Realistically, it wouldn’t make sense for the only crimes in Huntsville to be shootings taking place months apart, with no petty crimes. While Madison is shown to have a whole lot. For that site, Huntsville only seems to have random incidents from the news and Madison has a lot more that might come directly from police since a bunch of small thefts don’t make it on the news, unless it’s a crime stoppers thing.

[HB2HSV]

Originally Posted by Conner97

Realistically, it wouldn’t make sense for the only crimes in Huntsville to be shootings taking place months apart, with no petty crimes. While Madison is shown to have a whole lot. For that site, Huntsville only seems to have random incidents from the news and Madison has a lot more that might come directly from police since a bunch of small thefts don’t make it on the news, unless it’s a crime stoppers thing.

I agree with you. It is a "small town thinking" refusing to share crime data.

What are you hiding?

This reminds me that, at one time, the local MLS refused to share data with Zillow and even today certain information are withheld from the general public, eventhough Redfin gets its data directly from the Valley MLS these days. Only members of MLS (Realtors) can have access to. At one point, I recalled you'll need to call the listing agent just to find out the listing price. They don't do that anymore. I call that progress. LOL.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

I agree with you. It is a "small town thinking" refusing to share crime data.

What are you hiding?

This reminds me that, at one time, the local MLS refused to share data with Zillow and even today certain information are withheld from the general public, eventhough Redfin gets its data directly from the Valley MLS these days. Only members of MLS (Realtors) can have access to. At one point, I recalled you'll need to call the listing agent just to find out the listing price. They don't do that anymore. I call that progress. LOL.

Agree. If they're hiding data, why? I've lived here a long time, and consider it to be very safe. Of course, there are areas I wouldn't venture into during the day, let alone at nighttime, but all places of any size have those areas.

I'd think violent crimes are very low in the Huntsville area, compared to similar sized areas.

[HB2HSV]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

Agree. If they're hiding data, why? I've lived here a long time, and consider it to be very safe. Of course, there are areas I wouldn't venture into during the day, let alone at nighttime, but all places of any size have those areas.

I'd think violent crimes are very low in the Huntsville area, compared to similar sized areas.

To give you an example, in the NW Huntsville they stated there were 4 shootings in 2020 (the last one being 12/20/2020) but they don't show petty crimes such as theft or burglary, or arrests. OTOH, in the peaceful town of Madison near the intersection of Madison Blvd and Wall Triana, they show 5 thefts, 9 burglaries, 1 assault, and 4 "others" crimes. I think it's fair to say that Madison is a much safer place than NW Huntsville but you can't tell from the crime statistic.

Now in my uneducated opinion (dealing with the criminal world is not my specialty), shooting does not happen in vacuum. Usually this is associated with other crimes like drug dealings which led to other misc. crimes like theft and burglary or even assaults. Drug dealers need an economic base of support so that would mean there is a high probability of drug users in the area. Drug users need cash to support their habits so that leads to thefts, break-ins, robberies, or prostitutions. Competing drug dealers for a good territory leads to conflicts thus leads to shooting. There should be a "cause & effect" of chain of crimes that lead to shooting but nope, the area is squeeky clean other than "shooting".

So what are they hiding by not releasing the crime statistic?

This reminds me the movie "Jaws" where the city council did not want to publicize there is shark in its beaches for fear it will hurt the local economy.

[RocketDawg]

Huntsville has murders - we just don't know how many. And I can't think of a legitimate reason that we do not know. At one time, 20 per year was a good number and I suspect it likely still is.

To compare, Birmingham (the city, not the metro) has had 113 homicides in 2020. Was watching the news last night and they were saying that in NYC, with $1B removed from the police budget, that the city has had something like 440 murders this year. Compare the two, NYC had about 8M people living there, while B'tham's population is around 210K. NYC is roughly 40 times the population of Birmingham yet only 4 the number of fhomicides, a much lower per capita murder rate than B'ham. New York doesn't have anything to complain aobut compared to Birmingham, or even the much smaller city of Jackson, MS (about 99 murders with ohly 160,000 people).

All that said, you have to wonder why Huntsville's violent crime isn't published. It's bound to be much lower than the state's other 3 major cities.

[MardiGras251]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

Huntsville has murders - we just don't know how many. And I can't think of a legitimate reason that we do not know. At one time, 20 per year was a good number and I suspect it likely still is.

To compare, Birmingham (the city, not the metro) has had 113 homicides in 2020. Was watching the news last night and they were saying that in NYC, with $1B removed from the police budget, that the city has had something like 440 murders this year. Compare the two, NYC had about 8M people living there, while B'tham's population is around 210K. NYC is roughly 40 times the population of Birmingham yet only 4 the number of fhomicides, a much lower per capita murder rate than B'ham. New York doesn't have anything to complain aobut compared to Birmingham, or even the much smaller city of Jackson, MS (about 99 murders with ohly 160,000 people).

All that said, you have to wonder why Huntsville's violent crime isn't published. It's bound to be much lower than the state's other 3 major cities.

So technically Mobile is Alabama’s safest major city since Montgomery and Birmingham have higher violent crime rates than mobile and we don’t know “huntsvegas “ violent crime rate.