By Ari Burack
May 8, 2008
San Francisco residents will soon be able to monitor crime in individual neighborhoods throughout the city via a third-party Web site, www.crimereports.com.
San Francisco police announced the plan yesterday at a meeting of the Police Commission.
“The department is now positioned to move forward and become a leader in violent crime reporting,” Deputy Chief Charles Keohane said.
The CrimeReports Web site, which is already used by police departments in San Jose, Santa Clara, Fremont, Novato and Palo Alto, offers daily updated crime reports, including burglaries, vehicle thefts, fires, assaults and homicides, displayed on a Google neighborhood map.
The goal is to provide residents with nearly instantaneous reporting of crime in their neighborhoods, as well as to give police a tool to help analyze crime trends, according to police.
The program would update the police department’s current “CrimeMaps” system, begun in 2004, but which has since been plagued by outdated software and a lack of full-time crime analysts to quickly and accurately enter the data, according to the department.
As recently as Tuesday, Supervisor Tom Ammiano critiqued the current system for failing to report homicides.
Keohane said the new site will report homicides, along with other crimes.
The department also reported it has since hired two more crime analysts to add to the two current full-time positions, and has made software upgrades.
San Francisco police said they hope to have the new system up and running in June.
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