Baltimore’s got murders

As an admirer of data visualization and interactivity, I can respect the effort Baltimoresun.com developer Stephen Mekosh put into developing this handy Google Maps mashup. In one click of a button, users can plot the locations of murders over the last three years atop an interactive Google Map of Baltimore.

Select options from the dropdown lists below and click “Show Results”. The map below will display points for each homicide in Baltimore City that meets your search criteria. Click on a point to get details about that homicide.

There have been 163 homicides in 2009 to date.

You can even drill down to each particular murder’s location and get the dead person’s name, race, age, and cause of death. Each of the deceased has a unique profile page, kind of like a Facebook profile, but for dead people.

Here is the tool: http://essentials.baltimoresun.com/micro_sun/homicides/