LA Times launches Google Maps crime mashup

The Los Angeles Times online edition (LATimes.com) has launched a new feature called the The Homicide Map. The map is a mashup of Google Maps and The Homicide Report - an online blog-style effort by Times reporter Jill Leovy to chronicle every homicide in Los Angeles County in 2007 (As of July 30, The Times has counted 496 homicides in L.A. County). The Homicide Map helps users explore the data at a broad level while the Report itself is more focussed on individual homicides.

The Homicide Map features:

• Filter by victim's race, gender, cause of death, and other parameters
• Find homicides near an address and/or ZIP code
• View photos of victims and link to Leovy's reports
• RSS feeds or Google Earth viewing

Crime maps were among the first types of Google Maps hacks to hit the scene even before Google released the Maps API. Adrian Holovaty's ChicagoCrime.org spawned a number of other crime and sex offender maps mashups that I have cataloged over the past few years here on Google Maps Mania.

Related: Los Angeles Google Maps Mashups

[Thanks for the tip Frederic and Eric!]