LAUSR

Crime incidents are a major concern of public safety. Residents can help in crime‐fighting by reporting suspicious behavior via call for service (calling 911 in the U.S.). To study this behavior at the city level, we analyze the relationship between crime incidents and 911 calls data. First, we propose an approach to pairing up calls with incidents based on spatiotemporal proximity. Based on the paired up calls and incidents, we define and compute the reporting rate for the studied city. Then we analyze the reporting rate and disaggregate it by types of crimes and neighborhoods. Our analysis reveals that residents are better at reporting shooting incidents than arson or rape incidents, and wealthier neighborhoods tend to have lower reporting rate. City planners can use the reporting rate to engage residents more in reporting suspicious behavior and provide better public safety services.