The folks at Oakland Crimespotting have elegantly rendered the crime data (if such attributes can be applied to crime) from the Oakland, California CrimeView, operated by the Oakland Police Department.

The Web page opens with crime-specific color coded icons placed at the crime sites on an interactive map. Pan in all directions to easily view the types of reported criminal activity throughout Oakland. Hover over the icon to get a popup listing the date, time and type of crime, and a hypelink report number that opens a larger view of the selected crime area. Receive new crime reports by email or RSS.

The Oakland government CrimeView site takes you through a 5-part process before you get to the crime map. If you want to search by address or intersection and you don’t know where those are on the map, the Oakland government site may be a better starting point. I wrote about this site and other crime mapping links last year. Since then, the LA Times has developed a Homicide Map for Los Angeles.