Data on crime trends can be instrumental in risk analysis, security planning and budgeting, and for comparing with nearby competitors. Compare crime rates for trade areas to state or national averages, project what crime will look like for specific areas in the future, discover more details about specific crime incidents in your chosen locations, and even request a Placer XTRA report that visualizes crime risk for any property.

You’ll be able to answer these questions after reading this article:

1. How prevalent is crime around your location of interest, and has it changed over time? 
2. Are specific types of crime more common, and what time of day do they occur?
3. How does crime surrounding your location of interest compare to other properties nearby, or to your competition?

Get started with the following steps:

Step 1: Review the Audience Profile for AGS CrimeRisk data

a. Open the Placer report for the POI^{Point (Location) of Interest.}, navigate to the Demographics page on the left sidebar, and refer to Audience Profile.

b. Select the trade area type you’d like to use for the report (True Trade Area, Drive Time, Walk Time, or Distance in Miles).

c. Select AGS CrimeRisk from the drop-down menu as the dataset of choice, with 2021 as the template (to get the most current information). If the dataset is not visible in the menu, click View more Datasets to add it. You can benchmark crime rates against the Nation or State (index scores can be read as percentages. For example, a score of 110 means that the figure is 10% above the base average of 100. A score of 90 represents a figure of 10% below the base average). So in this example, total crime in a 10-minute drive time of this POI is 94% above the state average.

d. If you change the template to 2026 Projection, you can see additional information on how the crime rates are expected to look in 5 years, and thus how crime is trending. In this same example, the 2026 projection shows that Total Crime is expected to increase in a 10-minute drive time of this POI, and Personal Crime is expected to decrease.

Step 2: Use Area Analysis tools to identify more specific crime details

a. From the Property report page, navigate to Area Analysis in the left sidebar. 

b. Scroll to Crime Profile^{Mapping crime incidents in relation to a property location. Additional details such as address and additional details are provided.}. This section maps crime incidents in relation to a property location. Clicking on a single incident provides additional details such as the address. Crime data mapping allows the following configuration:

• By Area - Shows all reported incidents in the specified area
• Within a Time Frame - Shows all incidents reported at the specified hour and day of the week
• By Mile-Ring Area - Shows all incidents reported in the area within a defined radius

Step 3: Request a Placer XTRA Trade Area Crime Risk Profile map

‍This report visualizes crime risk for any property by showing a venue’s trade area layered on top of a crime risk index base map. Choose to analyze total crime, personal crime, or property crime, and customize the type of trade area presented (i.e. by Drive Time, Walk Time, Distance in Miles, or True Trade Area). For each report, a table shows a crime overview and a breakdown of the selected crime types (i.e., total crime, personal crime, or property crime). The table also shows the relative percent change in crime risk of the current year indexed against a five-year projection (2026). 

2021 AGS Crime data at the Census Block Group (CBG) level is used to create this report. The Trade Area Crime Risk Profile report is delivered as a high-resolution PDF that provides an essential visual asset for retail leasings, insurance underwritings, site selection, and risk analysis.

a. In the top navigation bar, select Advanced Reports, and choose Placer XTRA in the left sidebar to view the report catalog. Click on Trade Area Crime Risk Profile (you can first filter by clicking on Crime under Reports Catalog).

b. To request this report, enter the Placer POI(s), select the applicable date range, base map type, benchmark type, and total trade area distance in miles (many leave this at 50). Once submitted, this report is delivered in 1-3 business days.

Learn about Placer XTRA