Another South Austin Shooting

Sunday's Austin American-Statesman featured a short story in the Metro & State on yet another shooting in south Austin. Melissa Mixon wrote a succinct story of the events as told to her by Austin police spokesperson Laura Albrecht and two residents of the University Heights apartment complex where the shooting took place late Friday night.

Begin with the Obvious
The obvious multimedia treatment on this type of story would be necessary. We’d have to shoot the two sister residents of the University Heights apartment showing us where they were when they heard the argument and shooting, as well as where the shooting took place. Since the women said they no longer feel safe in the neighborhood, or even walking from the parking lot to their apartment, I’d have a separate video taken of their walk at night, with only their voices, demonstrating how far the walk is and what/who they might come into contact with on that walk.

Where’s the data?
A quick google search for "southeast Austin shootings" yields a plethora of recent new stories on shootings in the area but no one offers a summary or statistic on who, when, where or how often.

I would continue my multimedia treatment on the story by switching to a broad perspective that is sure to interest southeast Austin residents as a whole. I’d utilize gathered data to create a map, similar to those found on Google Maps’ hybrid satellite images, of what is officially considered southeast Austin.

I’d delve deeper by offering flags on the map at all locations where a shooting has occurred in the last 12 months. A scroll over the flags would yield a small text box pop up with the same general data on each shooting: date of shooting, who was shot, what was the cause (drug related, domestic violence, etc), who, if anyone, was arrested and/or charged.

Links are a Necessity
Additionally, I would offer readers a link back to the original story on each of the shootings, as well as any related articles since. The links to the original stories would offer readers the opportunity to see original photographs as well as any available video on each of the shootings.

Tables and Time lines
I would also create tables with the collected data. The first table would show a timeline of shootings over the past year. The second would show the increase in shootings, if any, over the past ten years. A breakdown in percentages of what each shooting was related to would also be available, for example 10 percent were drug related and 30 percent involved domestic violence. Another table would show annually how many cases resulted in a conviction. Yet another table would show a breakdown of what times of day shootings most often occur. An arrow left and right would allow readers to switch back and forth from one table to the next. A comments box below the tables would request readers submit ideas for other tables of data they’d be interested in.

Reader Interaction
A blog-like section would allow readers to interact even more by commenting on the shootings. Here they could report anything they perhaps saw that wasn’t in the news coverage or offer up suggestions for controlling crime in the area. This feedback might be helpful for the authorities, as well.

I'd also offer a link here to Apartment Ratings, a site where apartments dwellers offer each other advice on places they've lived and would never live again. Apparently University Heights isn't very popular right now with an overall Apartment Rating recommendation of only 24%.

Community Involvement
Finally, I’d offer links and resources including tips on how to create a neighborhood watch program. If a program was implemented as a result of the story and its multimedia treatment I’d dedicate a page on the site to it and the tracking of its progress.