I do not know if the Crime Doesn't Climb usage was against the ToS.
They could have possibly made all their requests within the rate limit imposed by Google. I'm unsure, however, if their usage of the data was allowed: "The Elevation API may only be used in conjunction with displaying results on a Google map; using elevation data without displaying a map for which elevation data was requested is prohibited." [1]
That said, I certainly think it's reasonable to want Google to allow paid access to their API at a rate between their current free offering and their prohibitively expensive offering for personal and small business usage.
