5 questions with Avi S. Adelman
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Avi S. Adelman is a neighborhood activist who lives near the Lower Greenville Avenue entertainment district. He is vice president of Belmont Neighborhood Association and publisher of BarkingDogs.com, a controversial Web site which focuses on neighborhood concerns. A “straight Jewish guy with ties to the LGBT community,” he recently launched DailyCrimeReport.com. The new Web site collects data from Dallas Police Department statistics by police beats and forwards that information at no charge to subscribers. He is also compiling data for specific neighborhoods and shares that information with subscribers as well. He hopes to finance the new Web site by selling advertising to sponsors.
How does your crime report service work?
We e-mail a summary of what happened in a neighborhood each day, according to the Dallas Police Department. I use their data on a public server that they publish. It’s off-the-shelf software, nothing complicated. I don’t edit it. I’m not judgmental. I’m not commenting. I’m just saying, “This is what happened around your house, guys.”
Why should people want to subscribe to your service?
Most people who own a home care about their community. They want to know what’s happening. People who are buying houses want to know about crime in a neighborhood. It’s always important to know what is going on with crime. That’s the first rule of crime watch. You can’t be prepared enough when it comes to your property, your car and your kids. You’ve got to know what’s going on.
What sort of response have you gotten?
It’s been phenomenal. I’m getting new subscribers all day long. I expect another 500 will subscribe immediately when this gets published. I’ve mailed out 4,000 business cards with the information about it. I just had another 10,000 published. I’m going to do post cards that contain both English and Spanish versions. I am so driven by this. I’ve already got the site up before I’ve got the business plan going.
What does the police department think about your project?
The police are pushing it. They not only support it, they flat out told me they don’t want to do it because they can’t afford to do it. They’re helping me get some new maps for the Web site now.
What do you envision happening with your project?
I’d like to have the whole world, but I’m going to start with North Texas. There are 180 cities in the area. I’m talking with two other cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex right now. Not all of them have the capability, but we’ll find a way to make it work.
Soundout is a weekly column featuring people whose jobs and interests have an impact on the daily lives of members of the LGBT community. It features those who often go unnoticed by the press and community. If you’d like to recommend someone to cover in this column, editor@dallasvoice.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 11, 2008