This is one of the innovations, now being done in Oregon, that we proposed for Parkway users to report illegal camping and other crimes in the Parkway’s Lower Reach, (see our report at http://www.arpps.org/report.pdf )
It is cost efficient to establish and very user friendly for Parkway users.
An excerpt.
City unveils faster way to file police reports
By Leslie Albrecht ;The Merced Sun-Star (California)September 26, 2006
Copyright 2006 The Merced Sun-Star All Rights Reserved
Next time neighborhood kids egg your house, don't waste precious hours waiting for a police officer to drive over and take a report.
With a new tool on the city's Web site, residents can report some crimes online, from the comfort of their home, any time of day.
"I'm sure there are times when people haven't reported crimes because they decided it was too much of a hassle," said city spokesman Mike Conway. "Hopefully this will make it a little bit less of a hassle."
The online crime reporting tool, which debuted Sept. 15 on www.cityofmerced.org, is for citizens to report nonemergency crimes like vandalism, graffiti or property stolen from cars.
Those kind of crimes, which aren't in progress and don't have a suspect on the scene, are the lowest priority for the police department, but they make up about half of all police calls, said Merced Police Department data analyst Emily Christensen.
In the first six months of this year, 11,168 such crimes have been reported, said Christensen.
Writing reports for minor crimes takes officers 20 minutes on average, said Christensen.
Reporting the crimes online will free police up to respond to higher priority calls and save time for residents too, said Christensen.
"Sometimes people can wait two to four hours for an officer to come to their house when all they really want is a case number for insurance purposes," said Christensen.
