Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A venture capital firm is funneling $7.2 million into Salt Lake City-based CrimeReports.com, which posts crime data online.
The company's chief executive says the financing arranged by Texas-based Austin Ventures will allow CrimeReports to provide more and better software services for police departments across the country.
CrimeReports extracts crime data from archaic computer systems of police departments, then posts the information in abbreviated form for free online viewing. It makes money but by charging police departments $100 to $200 a month to mine or convert their data into a Web-friendly form.
Police chiefs say they value the service for the transparency it brings to their operations.
So far, CrimeReports has signed up nearly 600 law enforcement agencies.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
