We've made changes to the map on the Homicide Report

Today you'll notice that we've changed the look and functionality of the Homicide Report's map. This is part of a series of improvements we're making to the site, based in part on readers' feedback.

The first change you'll see is that the old "clusters" (at left in the image above) have been replaced by orange markers for each incident. This offers a more accurate representation of where killings occur in Los Angeles County. There are more than 14,000 homicides going back to 2000 in our database, so when you select "All years" in the filters, you may notice that the map becomes sluggish in your Web browser. Plotting that many points is hard on browsers, but we're looking for ways to improve the speed.

You'll also notice that as you filter -- by age, race, cause and other categories -- homicides that do not fall within the selected filters will remain on the map as small gray dots. Previously, they would not appear. The new display provides greater context, especially when zoomed in on the map, because you can see nearby homicides regardless of neighborhood or other filters.

In the top left corner of the map, you'll find a button, below the zoom functions, that allows you to see a full-screen version of the map.

We have also slimmed down some features that were redundant, unnecessary or confusing.

Since the new homicide markers are more effective than the old clusters at showing densities of homicides, we've removed the coloring of neighborhoods based on the "L.A. Times Homicide Rank." We are still maintaining that data, though, and are looking for other ways for people to access it.

As always, please feel free to leave a comment or reach out to us by email with feedback.

-- Armand Emamdjomeh