Welcome to CrimeIsDown.com!

Our Mission

The purpose of CrimeIsDown.com is to provide police scanner listeners in the Chicago area an easy way to lookup information quickly pertaining to what they hear. Journalists use the site to quickly know what neighborhood and police district an incident is happening in. Scanner enthusiasts use the site to find out what radio zone they should listen to. Average citizens use the site to find out what crime is happening around them and to tune in live.

We hope to let people decide for themselves whether or not crime is down, based on independent statistics and listening to breaking news.

Why the name “CrimeIsDown”?

The name CrimeIsDown comes from a hashtag of the same name that was popular starting in 2013 among those in the #ChicagoScanner community. City leadership often said how crime was down, but that seemed to conflict with the number of shootings. In 2014, Chicago Magazine had published a story about how Chicago Police was reclassifying crimes to make crime stats appear lower than they really were. The hashtag #CrimeIsDown is used in a sarcastic fashion to challenge the narrative that crime is/was down. On CrimeIsDown.com, someone can listen to police radio themselves and come up with their own conclusions.

Why Should You Care About Crime In Chicago?

We could explain why but there are much better writers out there. Read a piece from the Chicago Tribune entitled "Curb Crime, Save Chicago" as part of their "New Plan of Chicago" series.

Organizations Making a Difference

Check out the organizations below and donate, volunteer, or find other ways to support these organizations. These organizations are being a part of the solution to Chicago's massive [violent] crime problem - join them and accelerate that change. There are many more like these out there - let us know if you want your organization added to this list.

Thank You

Mapping data comes from the City of Chicago Data Portal and other generous sources which prefer not to be named.

We make use of a variety of sources for the information used on the radio ID, online streams, and map pages. The sources are as follows:

• CARMA Chicago
• RadioReference Databases
• Broadcastify.com

Social media updates come from a variety of hardworking folks, some crime/breaking news reporters and photographers, some news editors, but most importantly hobbyists who listen to the scanners in their free time. Check out some of their Twitter profiles and follow them.

View the #CrimeIsDown list on Twitter

Contact Us

Follow @CrimeIsDown on Twitter to get crime news and updates from CrimeIsDown.com.

Contact Eric Tendian (eric [at] crimeisdown.com) for support with the website and other inquiries. Please consider clicking the Donate button at the bottom of the page and donating a small sum of money to keep the site up and running.

Support Us

The best way to support us is thru Patreon, where you can get exclusive features for becoming a patron. PayPal donations are also accepted, any donation amount is appreciated! We use the money to pay for web hosting, scanners used for live streaming, and other activities to continue adding features. Those who donate may get to try out exclusive features of the site and get access to all our scanner recordings.

• Become a Patron on Patreon
• Send us a donation via PayPal