Over the weekend, the Sun-Sentinel published a report on violent crimes at 13 South Florida malls. Part of our online storytelling included a searchable database (above) that lets readers explore the information.

The database was compiled by reporters Brian Hass and Sofia Santana and editor Dana Williams. They examined more than 22,000 police reports, found that more than 500 cases were violent crimes and cataloged the details in a spreadsheet. It was handed off to the graphics department and I designed and programmed the interface in Flash with a ton of help from Multimedia Director R. Scott Horner, our Flash wiz.

The rest of the Flash package was produced by Karsten Ivey, Belinda Long-Ivey and Lindsay Dubois.

We are always tying to improve and would love to hear comments on your experience with the project. Was it easy to use? Could something have been better?