LAKEPORT – This week Lakeport's chief of police introduced a new crime-fighting tool to the Lakeport City Council and community members.
At the Tuesday Lakeport City Council meeting, Chief Kevin Burke shared with the council his agency's plans to use www.crimereports.com .
Lakeport's data on the site will be live within the next few weeks, and will be available either by directly accessing the site or by going to Lakeport Police's Web page, www.cityoflakeport.com/departments/home.aspx?deptid=76 .
“It's a great, great tool, not only for the public but for police management as well,” Burke told the council.
The company's Web site says it works with 700 police agencies across North America to compile crime statistics, and offers law enforcement software tools to document crime trends.
Community members also can sign up for free e-mail crime alerts, the company reported. A new iPhone application also has been launched to share crime information.
Burke said the Internet-based tool is the “ultimate in transparency.” It will provide the community with greater information on where crimes are taking place, and give his department an effective tool to disseminate crime information with a view to solving cases.
When going to the site, community members can put “Lakeport” into the search area. The site will then bring up a map with listings for various crimes, when they occurred and what type of crime occurred.
Names and exact locations won't be provided to the public, but will be available to police, Burke said. Site users can look up specific types of crimes and locations.
The site already features six months of Lakeport Police data, Burke said. “Every one of our officers will be looking at this on a daily basis,” because he said it gives a good snapshot of what crimes are occurring in the community.
He said he feels it will be an important information source for the media and city residents. “I think if you live in a town you have the right to know what's happening, crime-wise.”
It also will be a benefit to the police department, which can use the site and its crime dissemination tools to develop responses. Burke said many larger police agencies have been using the site for five to six years.
Lakeport Police has been offered a “teaser” rate of $1,500 for six months, Burke said. The annual cost for the department would be $4,000.
He said larger departments have crime analysts who pour over data and manually enter it into a crime tracking system. This tool will put Lakeport Police on par with larger departments in terms of its ability to analyze crime statistics.
During a recent string of commercial burglaries, Burke said his officers had to pull out a regular map and do old-style pin mapping to try to identify patterns, which this program does automatically. It also alerts police to anomalies in crime rates and types.
“Criminals are creatures of habit, just like everybody else,” he said, and tracking statistical patterns will help apprehend them quicker.
Burke said the site will bring Lakeport Police into the “modern paradigm of crime fighting.”
He said he's been looking at the program for a year, and used asset forfeiture funds as seed money for the project. When the city's budgeting process starts later this spring, he said he'll be able to bring the council information on how effective it is.
Councilman Ron Bertsch asked who enters the data into the program.
Burke said any time an officer takes a report, it is logged into the department's RIMS report management system.
Every night at midnight, that information is sent to www.crimereports.com through a secure connection, requiring no additional staff time to produce the data and therefore no hidden manpower costs, Burke said.
The company is familiar with numerous records management systems, including Lakeport's, Burke explained. After about a half hour on the phone with one of Lakeport Police's sergeants, the company was able to link to the system and being receiving the information.
No other local agencies are using the site so far, Burke said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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