This post explains why the North Myrtle Beach Police Department partnered with Civic Informer and what the partnership means for the people who live in, work in, and visit North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. For a guide to the site itself, read the Civic Informer North Myrtle Beach launch post.
Answering a question the community already asks
Residents, businesses, and visitors in North Myrtle Beach want to know what the police are responding to. While the North Myrtle Beach Police Department regularly shares updates and answers questions from the public, the department wanted to provide residents with a resource to find those answers on its own terms, whenever the question comes up.
The North Myrtle Beach Police Department responds to a variety of emergency calls daily. From medical assistance calls to unsafe drivers to shopliftings and assaults, the public has an interest in how NMBPD is protecting them and we want them to see our proactivity in keeping our city safe. Civic Informer is just another tool to provide transparency and to keep the community informed.
Context behind the numbers
The North Myrtle Beach Police Department already shares information about its work in many places: at city council meetings, at community events, and on social media. But a single number rarely tells the whole story. Civic Informer North Myrtle Beach is built to supply that context. Every morning, the previous day's incidents and calls for service are published in an online report and a daily email. The interactive map and views for the Cherry Grove, Ocean Drive, Crescent Beach, and Windy Hill Council Districts update at the same time.
How reports are published
Each report is built from publicly releasable call data provided by the North Myrtle Beach Police Department. Before anything is published, Civic Informer always:
- Generalizes locations to the hundred block so that no exact address appears.
- Further generalizes the locations of sensitive call types, such as domestic violence, to the Council District level.
All content issued by Civic Informer is programmatically generated from department records, using processes defined collaboratively by Civic Informer and the North Myrtle Beach Police Department. This keeps every report and visualization consistent from day to day, and free of personal opinion.
Why Civic Informer
Civic Informer is an independent civic technology company based in the Pacific Northwest. It works with public safety agencies to turn raw records into information communities can use. Civic Informer uses only official government records, does not editorialize, and is always free for residents. Civic Informer's mission is to provide communities with accessible views of public safety records, and provide partner agencies more time to protect and serve.
See it for yourself
Read the latest daily report, explore the map, and sign up for the free daily email at civicinformer.com/north-myrtle-beach.