Chicago Building Violations Scraper

Query the official City of Chicago Building Violations dataset through its public Socrata API. The actor returns one normalized dataset item per violation and stores a run summary in the OUTPUT key-value record.

What it returns

Each result includes the City violation ID, violation and inspection details, address fields, property group, coordinates, computed community/ZIP/ward identifiers, the official API URL, and the UTC retrieval time. Null values are preserved when the City dataset does not provide a field.

The source dataset is Building Violations (22u3-xenr). It contains Department of Buildings violations from 2006 to the present. The City notes that the data is historical and informational; it should not be used as a substitute for title commitments, court records, or a current property-condition inspection.

Example input

The default query returns up to 100 OPEN violations:

{
  "violationStatus": "OPEN",
  "maxResults": 100
}

Find violations near an address over a date range:

{
  "address": "121 N LA SALLE",
  "violationDateFrom": "2024-01-01",
  "violationDateTo": "2024-12-31",
  "maxResults": 250
}

Filter an entire property group or inspection:

{
  "propertyGroup": "92840",
  "inspectionNumber": "14930108",
  "maxResults": 100
}

For advanced use, where accepts one Socrata $where expression using the official field names, for example street_type = 'AVE' AND inspection_status = 'FAILED'. Do not include $where= in the value.

Inputs and limits

• address: case-insensitive address substring.
• propertyGroup: exact Property Group identifier.
• violationStatus: OPEN, COMPLIED, or NO ENTRY; defaults to OPEN.
• violationCode: exact violation code.
• inspectionNumber: exact inspection number.
• inspectionCategory: COMPLAINT, PERIODIC, PERMIT, or REGISTRATION.
• violationDateFrom and violationDateTo: inclusive YYYY-MM-DD date range.
• where: optional advanced SoQL filter.
• order: newest or oldest violation date.
• maxResults: 1–5,000 records; default 100.
• pageSize: 1–1,000 API rows per page; default 500.

The actor uses the public City endpoint directly, does not require an API key, and does not use browser automation or private data. API errors are reported honestly in OUTPUT; partial results remain available when a later page fails.

Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing with platform usage included:

Event	Price
Actor start	$0.00005 per start event
Violation record returned	$0.0005 per dataset item

The default 100-record run costs at most approximately $0.05005, excluding any later dataset storage or access costs. Valid empty or invalid-input runs do not create dataset-item charges.

Local development

npm install
npm test
npm start

The start command expects Apify Actor input/storage environment variables. For a quick local API smoke test after building, use the Apify local runner or run the compiled code with a local INPUT.json/storage configuration.