I chose to explore the data set which has records of all calls for service to the LAPD in the year of 2014. The ontology of the data set is vast with 932781 records of data and organised under 8 categories in relation to the details of the call.
The first category attaches an Incident Number to the call, the 12 digit numbers give a sense of the amount of calls the LAPD received. The following categories locate the call geographically, showing the Area Occurred, where the call was made from with in LA, and then they are organised under their Reporting District. The Reporting District is a four digit code which represents a sub-area within the Geographical Area used by the LAPD to refine the location of the call.
Next the date and time in which the call to the LAPD was made is listed, showing the Dispatch Time and Dispatch Date, the details are exact to the second. Then, there is a short one word description of the nature of the call, Call Type Description, which runs alongside the call type code. The references are short, and range from ‘Firework, Violent Male, DOM VIOL, Traffic Stop,’ to simply ‘Man’ or ‘Woman.’ Although there is no explanation of what the call type code references, this most likely gives a more exacting reference for the call.
This ontology is recorded from the point of view of law enforcement officials, with codes and references relating to their needs when investigating a situation. This dataset would also be useful for future reference to see any correlations between particular calls being made in certain areas or at certain times in order to asses Los Angeles crime issues.
The dataset can be used to inform us of crime trends within different areas in Los Angeles City. Looking at the frequencies of the reports of the most common crimes, and in which areas and neighbourhoods they are reported most often. The data can also be used in relation to other years to see which crimes are being reported more and less often.
However, there are details left out of the dataset, we can not see a record of any details of the person who made the call, their age, gender or ethnicity is not recorded which is crucial data. We also cannot see the outcome of these calls, if they were followed up and a crime recorded as of this data they are just reports and calls which although useful data is not complete of a crime.
This data could be reorganised from the point of view looking at the number and type of crime reported through the calls, with specific focus on areas with different income brackets, to then see which areas need more resources and money given to prevent and educate areas.