Home.Land. Security. was designed to represents unsafe, threatening and harmful spaces as experienced by the most vulnerable. We were moved by the murders of Trayvon Martin and Oscar Grant and many other cases of physical and emotional violence against people from marginalized communities. While many communities have a good relationship with law enforcement, for many others—including people of color, queer folks, and undocumented immigrants—police presence is itself a threat. We found many websites mapping crime data provided by police departments, but none mapping how safe different places might be for societ's most vulnerable people.

Our site is designed for members of marginalized communities to better identify safety risks from their viewpoint, including, but not limited to, police shootings and targeted arrests for what we call “quality of life” crimes, which all to often target the homeless, sex workers, and other marginalized groups. We hope that this site will highlight spatial and demographic patterns of excessive force and aid both citizens and policymakers in preventing future incidents. This site will also give people a forum to report, map and share incidents of safety and unsafety that they witness or experience.>

About Us

This website was designed by a team of Masters students in Urban Planning and Environmental Health at UCLA for a class project. The site was partly a chance for us to put into practice what we were learning in our 10-week crash course in web programming, and partly a chance for us to try to flip the script on crime and safety.

Jordan Rosencranz

Born and raised in San Francisco, and having attended Lowell High School, Jordan is especially interested in improving the quality of life in his hometown. With a bachelor's degree in Wildlife Management and over three years of experience working as a regulatory biologist/wetland scientist in California, Jordan became interested in GIS as a tool for environmental research and planning purposes. By Summer 2012, Jordan will have a master's degree in Environmental Health Science from UCLA and will begin his doctoral degree in Environmental Science and Engineering in the Institute of Environment and Sustainability at UCLA.

Ben Palmquist

Ben graduated in June 2012 from UCLA with a Masters of Regional and Urban Planning, where he studied movement building, popular education, and community economic development. Before graduate school, he worked in community development in the Bay Area and in appropriate technology and rural economic development in Indonesia. He has also worked with street children in Ecuador, run an international volunteer program, launched a sustainable bamboo forestry pilot project, conducted research for labor organizations, and helped run a day camp. He received his BA in Urban Studies from Stanford in 2005.

Pam Stephens

Pamela Stephens graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in Urban Studies but really solidified her interest in planning after working in the Reproductive Justice movement, providing advocacy support and direct service to low-income women who faced barriers to accessing health care. She also worked in youth development for high school students in Berkeley and East Oakland. As a Master's candidate in Urban and Regional Planning at UCLA, Pamela has contributed to research projects with focuses on equity for the California Department of Housing and Community Development, the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing, and the Ford Foundation. Through all of her work, Pamela holds a strong commitment to social justice.

Will Dominie

Will Dominie has spent the last 10 years working for environmental, racial, economic and gender justice. He currently works as a planner challenging spatial health and safety inequities in the Bay Area. Previously, Will has provided research support to the Los Angeles Bus Riders Union, worked for racial and environment justice with Urban Habitat, and contributed research and political education to support Causa Justa::Just Cause’s campaigns to establish the human right to housing.

FAQ

What inspired this site?

Home.Land. Security. was designed to represents unsafe, threatening and harmful spaces as experienced by the most vulnerable. We were moved by the murders of Trayvon Martin and Oscar Grant and many other cases of physical and emotional violence against people from marginalized communities. While many communities have a good relationship with law enforcement, for many others—including people of color, queer folks, and undocumented immigrants—police presence is itself a threat. We found many websites mapping crime data provided by police departments, but none mapping how safe different places might be for societ's most vulnerable people.

Our site is designed for members of marginalized communities to better identify safety risks from their viewpoint, including, but not limited to, police shootings and targeted arrests for what we call “quality of life” crimes, which all to often target the homeless, sex workers, and other marginalized groups. We hope that this site will highlight spatial and demographic patterns of excessive force and aid both citizens and policymakers in preventing future incidents. This site will also give people a forum to report, map and share incidents of safety and unsafety that they witness or experience.>

What technologies does the site use?

We designed the site using HTMl, CSS and Javascript, and are pulling in data from an API and from a map server we created using ArcGIS.

Where did you get your data?

• 2006-2010 ACS, tables: B02001, B03002, B19013, B05012, B06007, B15002, and B25064
• San Francisco Crimespotting
• Office of the City Attorney, City and County of San Francisco
• San Francisco Department of City Planning
• San Francisco Police Department
• 2011 SFPD Firearm Discharge Review Board Report

What is the safety ranking?

We calculated a safety rating for each of San Francisco's neighborhoods based on on "quality of life" crime citations per capita and police shootings. The more citations and the more shootings, the worse a neighborhood's rating. Based on these ratings, we ranked the city's 36 neighborhoods from 1 (safest) to 36 (least safe).

Do you have any future plans to continue with the site?

Although we are done with our class and have all graduated from our programs, we hope this site will live on. If you are interested in working with us to continue developing and/or hosting the site or you have any feedback, please contact us at uprsvp [at] gmail.com.

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