The Vancouver Police Department has activated an online crime map that charts local crimes by officers’ reports.
The system takes geographical data from police reports, then maps them out with basic information about the incident, including the nature of the reported crime, the type of location, block-level address and date and time.
The department had a similar mapping system, now defunct, several years ago. Now that the police department’s new records management division is operating, staff could start integrating police report information with the mapping software, department spokeswoman Kim Kapp said.
“It’s sort of a long-term process to get this new records management system refined so it could actually work well with a mapping program,” she said.
The map is available at the department’s website, www.vanpolice.org.
The system allows residents to sign up for email alerts about crimes in their area, and the map has different filtering features to sort out the data. Kapp encouraged people to check it out.
“We know it’s really helpful to citizens, people who may be thinking of moving here, the media, so there’s a lot of users who can really get a good snapshot of what’s going on,” she said.
The map updates daily as new police reports are logged into the police department’s records system.
That doesn’t necessarily include every single call made to police — only the ones where a report is taken. Also, since the map updates as officers’ reports are processed, it could take a few days for some reports to show up, Kapp said.
The map does not include sex-offender information. Online information about sex offenders in Clark County is available on the department’s website, and through the Clark County Sheriff’s Office’s website, at www.clark.wa.gov/sheriff, or at communitynotification.com, under Clark County.
