Whether you're looking at a new house in an unfamiliar neighborhood, or you're just curious about the crime rate in the surrounding areas, CrimeReports.com serves as an awesome resource. Known as "the largest, most comprehensive crime-mapping website in the world", the site works with thousands of local law enforcement agencies in North America and the UK to help map out crime across various areas.

Using CrimeReports.com

If you know how to use simple mapping websites such as MapQuest or Google Maps, then CrimeReports would be a no brainer. Just type the exact address or location (City, State) that you're curious about, set a date range, and hit the search button. CrimeReports will then map out all the crimes or incidents reported by the law enforcement agencies that it's working with.

The site displays near real time, general (and publicly available) details about the crimes and matches each incident with its corresponding place on the map. Explore the various incidents the occurred on a given area, and get a picture of how "safe" a neighborhood is.

So what exactly are the types of occurrences that CrimeReports displays? Just about any crime you can think of. The incidents that you can check out on the site include Breaking & Entering, Homicide, Roberry, Theft, Sexual Offense (including sex offender alerts), Assault, and more. You also have the option of displaying information about Traffic, Fire, Quality of Life, Proactive Policing, and more. You'll be able to see each crime's block level location, time when it happened, agency, and more, depending on the type of crime and the available information. Note that complete crime information isn't always obtainable. As CrimeReports put it, the service "relies on individual law enforcement agencies to provide details on crimes. Each agency is different and may provide more or less crime information than others. At minimum, CrimeReports requires four items of information when mapping crimes: type, location, date, and time. All additional information is voluntarily supplied by individual law enforcement agencies."

Each incident has a corresponding icon that allows you easily see quick details about each occurrence. CrimeReports also lets you customize the exact types of occurrences that you want to see. For example, if you're keeping an eye out for theft incidents in particular, you can edit the site's settings to only display crimes of that nature.

What's more, you can sign up for free updates and alerts via email. Simply login to CrimeReports (registration is free), set the area on the map that you want to monitor, specify the types of crime that you want to be alerted about, and set the frequency of the alerts that you want to receive (i.e. daily, weekly, or monthly).

On the Go Access

Using the CrimeReports website is free, but you can also download the CrimeReports iPhone app, in case you keep crime watching when on the go. The app "is the only near real-time source for both official crime data and sex offender information, giving you access to information from over 700 participating law enforcement agencies across North America and sex offender data for all 50 States."