The data is retrieved from the weekly precinct reports published by the NYPD.

The NYPD publishes the weekly reports on Monday, and the data in the reports are published to EveryBlock shortly thereafter.

These reports are published in PDF format in 76 separate files -- one for each precinct. The previous week's data is overwritten with the new data each week, so that only data for the current week is available at any given time. As noted at the bottom of each PDF report, "CompStat figures are preliminary and subject to further analysis and revision". Crime statistics reflect New York State Penal Law definitions and differ from the crime categories reported to the F.B.I. Uniform Crime Reporting System.

Each crime report contains a list of seven crime types and the number of crimes for which that precinct has a report. Absence of a crime report does not mean absence of a crime -- it means there were no reports of that particular crime in that precinct that week. Because there are 76 active precincts in New York City, and the reports are published weekly, there are almost always 76 "crime statistics" in a given week. There may be weeks with less than 76 reports. In this instance, the report was not available at the time we retrieved them.

EveryBlock has attempted to obtain incident-level, block-level crime data from the New York Police Department -- both through direct request of the commissioner and through New York State Freedom of Information Law. Our requests have thus far been denied. The Chicago Police Department publishes crime reports in this detail, and they are used to populate EveryBlock Chicago as well as chicagocrime.org. We will continue to work to obtain this level of data from the NYPD.

If you would like to see incident-level, block-level crime data reporting from the NYPD, call your precinct and urge them to provide more detailed crime reports. Or dial 311 in New York.

New York Police Department.