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Where the burglaries are

We began a weekly feature today plotting all of the city's burglaries for the past week on a map.

It got a quick response from an early-bird reader: The map on home burglaries in the paper today isn't very helpful to anybody but the ones doing the burglary! You just showed the criminals where to go in Greensboro. The northwest side. Yes, criminals read the paper, too!

Putting aside last week's post about a conversation I had with a reader who said that criminals don't read the paper, I question the logic here. The map shows few burglaries in the northwest quadrant of the city. Is the idea that thieves look at the map and think, "Aha! Unexplored neighborhoods! Who knew people lived up there?"

I don't think so.

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Tags: News judgment, Crime

Posted by John Robinson on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 8:36 am

What do you think?

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Eliza_Blake

October 27, 2009 - 10:45 am EDT

The burglary maps might help stem the recent hysteria about crime in wealthy neighborhoods, and their demands for stepped-up police resources. Most petty theft occurs in poor neighborhoods and that is where we should concentrate our resources, instead of following the maxim of the squeaky wheel.

SueP

October 27, 2009 - 10:56 am EDT

As I mentioned on Twitter, can't we get a .jpg on the site instead of having to open a PDF? It's a clunky step and the PDF is wreaking havoc with my browser. Too important to make hard to get.

Mike Fuchs

October 27, 2009 - 11:07 am EDT

http://mm.news-record.com/legacy/news/indepth/gsoburgmap_1009.jpg

dusenberry

October 27, 2009 - 11:17 am EDT

Northwester's are hear John. Everyone that comes onto this property is being watched and I mean everybody.
I think the bad boyz read well enough to understand getting shot. Home invaders beware.