Posted on Thu 25 September 2014

Important notice regarding crimenmexico

The website from which crimenmexico downloads crime information hasn’t been responding for quite a while now. The SESNSP server’s uptime has never been good but it has never stayed down for so long.
which I guess means that Secretariado Ejecutivo del Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública has suspended its open data policy of providing crime information. Apparently crime info is now only downloadable from a couple of zip files, but SESNSP made sure to:
  • Change the names of the crimes to include whitespace at the end (e.g “ROBOS” to “ROBOS ”)
  • Not include the INEGI code for each state and municipality, thus making it really difficult to merge with other data
  • Spell state names both with and without accents (YUCATÁN and YUCATAN)
  • Include subtotals (e.g. total crimes with violence) at the municipality level but not at the state level
  • Change the file format from csv to xlsx (Excel)
It’s almost as if they didn’t want anyone analyzing the data. It used to be that crimenmexico processed all the information in an automatic manner and made new data available immediately, but with these changes that has become impossible (I’m betting next month there will be more changes). There will now be a delay of a few weeks or so while I figure how to process the data.

At the webpage for downloading the crime information the SESNSP claims that [emphasis added]:
La presentación de los datos sobre incidencia delictiva en este portal electrónico obedece a los principios de acceso a la información y transparencia y a la adopción de las mejores prácticas internacionales en gobierno abierto.
If you disagree you can contact the SESNSP at: cni@secretariadoejecutivo.gob.mx



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