Developers usually encounter crime data through a simple product question: "Can we show neighborhood risk for this location?" The input might be a ZIP code, an address, a latitude and longitude, or a map viewport. A good crime score API should make those entry points predictable without forcing your product to ingest raw incident feeds or build geography joins from scratch.

CrimeScore's ZIP support is designed for that workflow. A ZIP/ZCTA lookup gives you a broad area estimate when the user only has a 5-digit ZIP. A coordinate lookup gives you a more precise score for a point. The embedded map gives context when a user needs to inspect nearby block groups rather than read a single number.

Common integration pattern

  1. Accept a ZIP code for early search, lead forms, saved searches, or market pages.
  2. Use the ZIP/ZCTA score response as a broad estimate and label it that way in the UI.
  3. When the user selects a property or exact point, call the coordinate endpoint for a block-group score.
  4. Add an embedded map where users benefit from seeing how nearby areas differ visually.

Response design

The API intentionally uses different identifiers for different lookup modes. Coordinate requests return a `geoid` because they resolve to a Census block group. ZIP requests return `zcta` because they resolve to a Census ZIP Code Tabulation Area estimate. That distinction helps generated clients and human readers avoid mixing precise coordinate scores with broader ZIP-style rollups.

A simple rule for product copy: call coordinate results "location scores" and ZIP results "ZIP/ZCTA estimates." That sets the right expectation without making the interface feel technical.

Embeds and public previews

Public SEO pages can use the CrimeScore map without a customer API key by relying on tile-derived public preview scores. Production customer embeds should still use publishable keys configured in the dashboard, because those embeds need domain controls and tier-specific behavior.

That separation keeps the public site useful while preserving the authenticated API for applications. It also keeps quota accounting clear: public tile preview clicks do not call the score API, while authenticated `/v1/score` calls continue to count against organization quotas.

Try it

Start with the public ZIP lookup page to see the no-account map experience. Then open the API playground to compare ZIP/ZCTA and coordinate response shapes with your own API key. If you are evaluating alternatives, the comparison pages explain how CrimeScore differs from public map sites and raw crime data APIs.