Legal Framework & Public Records
This independent analytical project, developed by Anthony Nick (Independent Analytics Lab), uses official crime statistics published by the City of New York under the NYC Open Data Law (Local Law 11 of 2012). The primary dataset is the NYPD Complaint Data (Historic), available on the NYC Open Data portal: NYPD Complaint Data – Dataset Page. For direct access, the dataset is also available via the SODA API: data.cityofnewyork.us/resource/qgea-i56i.csv. All records are reused in compliance with the NYC Open Data Terms of Use, which require proper attribution.
Red points on the map represent generalised NYPD crime locations. For privacy reasons, many incidents are snapped to the nearest intersection or address, and certain categories — including sexual‑offense reports — are geocoded to the local precinct rather than the actual event location.
Included Offence Categories
The analysis uses a focused subset of NYPD Complaint Data, limited to offences occurring in public spaces such as streets, parks, and transit areas. The following NYPD classifications are included: 105 – Robbery, 106 – Felony Assault, 344 – Assault & Related Offenses, 117 – Dangerous Drugs, 341 – Petit Larceny, 109 – Grand Larceny, 578 – Harassment.
All offence codes and descriptions follow the official NYPD classification system as published in the NYPD Complaint Data (Historic) dataset. These categories represent public‑space incidents most relevant to street‑level exposure and neighbourhood‑level crime patterns. Incidents occurring indoors, on private property, or without reliable street‑level coordinates are excluded to maintain geographic accuracy.
Excluded Offence Categories
Certain NYPD offence categories are intentionally excluded. In particular, 233 – Sex Offenses (including sexual abuse and rape) are not used in the Crime Level Index.
In the NYPD Complaint Data, these incidents are geocoded to precinct addresses rather than actual locations. Including them would artificially inflate crime density around precinct buildings and distort the spatial pattern of street‑level crime. All categories with systematically displaced or masked coordinates are excluded for the same reason.
Only offences with reliable street‑level coordinates are included. All exclusions follow the limitations documented in the NYPD Complaint Data (Historic) dataset.
Methodology & Data Specifics
This project presents an independent analytical model designed to estimate relative exposure to street‑level crime across New York City using officially recorded NYPD incidents.
The current version of the map is based on the NYPD Complaint Data (Historic) covering the full year of 2025. Updates are applied only when complete annual datasets become available, ensuring consistency and comparability across all areas.
1. Crime categories are manually selected by the author based on their relevance to public‑space incidents. Only incidents occurring in public spaces — streets, parks, transit areas — are included. Offences occurring indoors, on private property, or categories with systematically displaced coordinates (such as sexual‑offense reports geocoded to precinct addresses) are excluded to avoid misleading geographic patterns.
2. Each included offence category is assigned a severity weight on a scale from 1 to 10. These weights reflect the relative seriousness of consequences and typical legal penalties, but they remain an author‑defined analytical parameter. They do not represent an official NYPD risk rating or a measure of personal danger.
3. For each grid cell, a yearly aggregated value is calculated as the sum of (incident count × severity weight) across all selected offence categories.
4. This aggregated value is normalized by the surface area of the grid cell, producing a density‑based indicator referred to as the Local “Crime Level”.
5. The resulting values are visualized on a scalable map. Areas are color‑coded from green to red, where red represents grid cells with values approaching the upper range within the city. Clicking on a cell reveals the underlying NYPD‑recorded incident counts.
6. Users can filter the map by individual offence categories, dynamically recalculating and updating the spatial distribution.
7. At higher zoom levels, individual incident points are displayed based on NYPD‑provided geolocation data, subject to the generalization rules applied by the dataset.
8. The analysis is performed using a uniform 500 × 500 metre grid instead of administrative boundaries. This approach provides a more granular and location‑specific representation, reflecting the fact that crime patterns in NYC are often concentrated around specific blocks, intersections, and transit corridors rather than precinct or neighbourhood borders.
All calculations rely solely on officially recorded NYPD incidents. Like all police‑reported datasets, the Complaint Data reflects only crimes that were formally reported, and reporting rates vary between neighbourhoods. Because the project cannot estimate the ratio between actual incidents and those recorded by police, the Local Crime Level represents the density of reported crime, not total crime occurrence.
This index is not an official government metric and does not measure absolute safety. It is a comparative analytical indicator intended to support spatial understanding of crime distribution patterns across New York City.
The methodology reflects an independent analytical framework and is not endorsed by any government authority.
Jersey City Note
This platform also includes crime information for Jersey City, sourced from the official Jersey City Open Data portal. The dataset used is: JCPD – Calls for Service. These records are published by the Jersey City Police Department to support transparency and public awareness.
The dataset is reused exactly as provided by the City of Jersey City, without modification. All reuse complies with the Jersey City Open Data programme and its applicable licence.
Jersey City is included due to its proximity and transit links to Manhattan. However, because the available dataset (“2017 Police Calls for Service”) differs in structure and methodology from the NYC dataset, the two indices are not directly comparable. Jersey City values represent relative patterns within Jersey City only.
No Government Affiliation
This website is an independent analytical project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the NYPD, the City of New York, Jersey City, or any government agency. All datasets remain the property of their respective publishing authorities.
The project independently collects, organises, and visualises publicly available information. The interpretation, methodology, and presentation of the data are solely those of the project author and do not represent official government assessments or policy positions.
Data Accuracy & Limitations
The datasets used originate from official open data portals. Open government datasets may contain reporting delays, corrections, incomplete records, or occasional inaccuracies. The project does not independently verify every individual record.
Some crime categories include generalised or privacy‑adjusted coordinates. As a result, the displayed location of certain incidents may differ from the exact event location. These limitations are inherent to publicly released crime data and should be considered when interpreting the map.
Comprehensive Disclaimer
This website provides an analytical visualisation of historical police data. It does not offer safety guarantees, predictions, or real‑time monitoring, and it does not certify any location as safe or unsafe.
Historical records cannot predict future conditions, and crime patterns may change quickly. All decisions regarding travel, residence, movement, and personal safety remain solely the responsibility of the user. Nothing on this website should be interpreted as professional security advice; it is provided strictly as an informational resource.
Copyright & Terms of Use
© SafeAreasNYC.com, 2026. All rights reserved.
Methodology & Intellectual Property
The analytical methodology used in this project — including the 500 × 500 metre grid system, the normalisation of incident counts by surface area, the severity‑weighting model, the calculation formulas, and the visual representation of heatmaps — is an original analytical framework created by the project author.
The methodology, its implementation, and all derived Crime Level Index values are protected as intellectual property. All textual descriptions, explanatory materials, interface layouts, colour schemes, and branding elements are likewise protected by copyright.
Permitted Use (Screenshots & Index Values)
You may reproduce static screenshots of the map and quote specific numerical Crime Level values in articles, research papers, blog posts, or social media.
Mandatory Attribution
Any such use must include a direct hyperlink to SafeAreasNYC.com..