CrimeLensWhere our data comes from
CrimeLens holds no private database. It points at records that are already public — and here is exactly which ones.
Last updated: 5 August 2026
CrimeLens does not hold a private database of crime. It points at records that already exist and are already public. Here is exactly what those are.
The two categories
| Source type | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Public record | Published court decisions, official registers, and communications issued by public bodies such as police forces and prosecutors. |
| Established press | Reporting from publications with an identifiable masthead, editorial responsibility and a named or attributable byline. |
What never counts as a source
- Social media posts, threads and comments.
- Forums, message boards and community wikis.
- Content farms and aggregators without original reporting.
- Anything anonymous, unattributed or unreachable by link.
This is a stricter line than most true-crime content draws, and it is deliberate. The moment unverified material enters a map like this, the whole map stops being trustworthy.
Why the link matters more than the summary
Every entry in CrimeLens is short. That is not laziness: it is the design.
A long summary invites you to treat the app as the account of what happened. A short entry plus a link invites you to go and read the account written by the people who actually reported it. The second is the honest arrangement, and it is the one we chose.
Paywalls
Some press sources sit behind a paywall. We link to them anyway, because the alternative is either to omit well-reported cases or to substitute a weaker source. Where we know a link is paywalled, the entry says so, so you are not surprised.
Link rot is a real problem
News archives get restructured. Publications close. Court portals move. A citation that worked last year may return a 404 today.
When we detect a dead source, the entry is flagged. If the record cannot be verified again through another qualifying source, the entry is removed. An unverifiable claim on a map is worse than no entry at all.
Geolocation is approximate by design
Cases are mapped to the area a record associates them with, not to a doorstep. Pinning an incident to a precise private address would affect people who live there now and had nothing to do with it.
If you are wondering why a pin sits on a block rather than a building, that is why.
Frequently asked questions
What sources does CrimeLens use?
Public record — court decisions, official registers and communications from public bodies — and established press with an identifiable masthead. Never anonymous or unattributed material.
Can I see the original source of a case?
Yes. Every entry links directly to the source it came from. That link is the point of the product.
Do you pay for access to any records?
The records we use are public. Where a press source sits behind a paywall, the link still goes to the original, and we say so.
What if a source disappears?
Links rot. When we detect a dead source we flag the entry, and if the record cannot be re-verified elsewhere the entry comes down.
Keep reading
See the record for yourself.
Open the map, find the documented cases near you, and follow every one straight to its original source.