Everything on Local Wire is written from the public record. This is the record: every source the pipeline reads, on a schedule, with a link to each one so you can read exactly what we read. Other outlets' reporting is never a source, and neither is social media.
The map draws on three sources, all credited on the map itself. The base map is a Protomaps extract ofOpenStreetMap, served as a single file from our own storage rather than a third-party tile server, so the map keeps working regardless of what any vendor does.
Pin locations are resolved against street networks, one per city. Hamilton uses theCity of Hamilton's own Street Centreline data under theCity of Hamilton Open Data Licence, which is also what tells us which former town a Hamilton street belongs to. Every other city uses OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under theOpen Database Licence.
A report is only ever matched against the street network of the city it belongs to. Street names repeat between municipalities, so an unscoped match would place an incident in the wrong city, and this is the rule that prevents it.
Every document we cite is fetched politely (one request per host per second, with an identifying user agent), archived by content hash so the citation still resolves if the city reorganises its website, and linked from any article that relies on it. Theabout page explains the pipeline; thepublishing principles are the rules it runs under.