“[The dashboard] is an action that’s part of a broader initiative focused on transparency and accountability in public safety, and it’s grounded in the very simple idea that when people can see what’s happening, we can start to trust that we’re doing something about it,” Tuerk said at a news conference.
The dashboard includes neighborhood-level crime data from Jan. 1, 2024, until the present day, and Tuerk said it is updated in “very close to real time” — the most recent incident on the dashboard as of Tuesday morning was a reckless endangerment incident reported at 11:41 p.m. Monday. The city is currently “researching” the possibility of adding more historic crime data to the dashboard so that residents can compare historical averages.
The city experienced historic low levels of violent crime in 2024, including the lowest number of homicides — four — since 1989. Citywide crime data is available via the FBI’s website dating back to 2000, but that data lacks the neighborhood level specificity of the city’s dashboard.
On Allentown’s new crime dashboard, incidents can be sorted via crime type and searched for during a specific time frame. For example, so far in May, the city has had eight reported violent crimes — seven aggravated assaults and one robbery. Crimes reported on the dashboard include the date, time, neighborhood and type of incident, but do not include any identifying information about people involved.
“Part of my hope is that this encourages individuals, our citizens, our business owners to report crimes or incidents that may be happening within the city because it’s vital that we’re informed,” Roca said. “Oftentimes what you see is individuals will go to social media and post an issue there. Well, those seconds are valuable to report that through our communication center so that we can have officers respond.”
The dashboard and its data is currently only available in English. Tuerk said the city may look into translating the website into Spanish as well, possibly via translation software that uses artificial intelligence.
Tuerk, who is running for re-election to a second term, has made the city’s downward trending crime a cornerstone of his re-election campaign. Ed Zucal, Tuerk’s opponent in the Democratic mayoral primary election on May 20, has claimed that citywide crime is too high even though it was on a downward trend last year, and criticized the city’s approach to addressing quality of life issues.
Tuerk said Tuesday that lower levels of violent crime will help the city address pervasive quality of life issues like noise complaints, litter and vandalism.
“We see a downward trend in all of the levels of activity and that this is — there’s nothing that’s spiking up and and creating large levels of concern,” Tuerk said about the city’s crime trends. “It doesn’t mean that our folks are taking a step back or not worry about things, we remain vigilant about all public safety concerns in the city of Allentown.”
The dashboard can be accessed online at www.allentownpa.gov/police.
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