🛡️ What we will never do, and why

The most important thing to know about SSH Intel is what it refuses to do. It describes what was recorded. It never predicts, scores, grades, or ranks places, and it never tells you whether somewhere is "safe."

Every figure in the product is a count of what was recorded, reported, noticed, or searched for in a stated past period, with its uncertainty shown. This article is the one place that promise is explained in full.

The line we hold

Describing the past is allowed: "142 thefts were recorded here last quarter," "the rate ran about twice the Oahu average," "activity eased over recent months." A verdict or a forecast is not: no "high-risk area," no "Grade D," no "this will rise," no "safe" or "dangerous." The difference is small in words and large in meaning, and we stay on the describing side.

Sorting your own list is not ranking

In Compare and on the Places board you can sort your own areas or sites by a figure. Each list opens in the order you chose, or by name. We never put places in order for you, and we never number them or call one the "worst".

Why, as a principle

A neighborhood is not a number. A letter grade labels the people who live and work there, and it passes off a number with many causes as a judgment about them. A "high-crime" label often just means "more visitors by day" or "more people who report things." We would rather give you the sourced facts and let you draw your own conclusion.

Why, as protection

Describing public records is well protected by law. Predicting or advising invites people to rely on us for a decision, and that carries much heavier legal risk. Tenant-screening scores have run into fair-housing law in exactly this way. By never scoring or ranking, we protect you and us. The full reasoning is in the methodology.

What this means for you

If you ask the tool "is Waikiki safe" or "rank my areas by danger," it will politely decline and offer to show you what was recorded instead. That is the product working as designed, not a bug. See Why did my search decline.