Adrian Holovaty, a former World Company Web developer, and Wilson Miner, World Online Commercial production coordinator, have won the $10,000 Grand Prize in the Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism for creating chicagocrime.org.

The site, credited by Batten judges as “setting a new standard for interactive journalism,” allows users to search by the type of crime, the street and neighborhood or the date, and pinpoint the location on a map.

The Batten Awards, announced Monday, “spotlight the creative use of new information ideas and technologies to involve citizens in public issues. They are administered by J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland and are funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. They honor the late James K. Batten, former Knight Ridder CEO.”

The Batten judges called chicagocrime.org “one journalist’s ability to see all the pieces and put them together … but every city should provide this as a public service.”

The award was a surprise, Holovaty said in a telephone interview from his home in Chicago.

• chicagocrime.org

“It was me against a bunch of mainstream news organizations, like Newsday and USA Today,” Holovaty said.

Holovaty said he’ll use the $10,000 prize to improve the site, including adding servers.

“I plan on putting the prize money to good use and making it a better site and adding a lot of cool stuff,” Holovaty said.

Holovaty, who recently became editor for editorial innovations for the Washington Post, created the site as a free public service.

Miner, World Online’s commercial production coordinator, designed the look and feel of the site.

“We’re more than proud of Adrian and Wilson. Adrian’s dedication to meaningful community journalism is one of the reasons he was such a valuable part of World Online. He’s created an important site that will be useful to anyone interested in crime information in Chicago,” said Dan Cox, director of World Online.