Marysville police crime reports go online

With the city facing a $700,000 budget deficit and public safety jobs facing the ax, Marysville has turned to an online tool for taking crime reports from its residents.

Nonemergency dispatch calls now are gently shepherded to the caller's home computer — or to one set up in the Marysville Police Department lobby — for reports of nonviolent crimes such as identity theft, lost or stolen property or vehicle burglary.

The online reporting system made by Coplogic, Inc., "is always on duty," said Sgt. John Osbourn, who acquired the software at a cost of $23,000 over two years, through a federal public safety grant.

Crime victims and citizen tipsters can call up the city's Web site on the Internet, click on the Police Reports Online option, and type in the necessary details.

"It saves man hours, which is important to be able to do in these times," Osbourn said. "And it's treated just like I wrote that report myself."

Marysville police have been directing a limited number of callers to use the system on a limited basis for the past three months, he said.

Osbourn said that in May, the department reviewed 29 incidents reported through the Online system and concluded that it had saved about 21 hours of work for police.

Last week, the Marysville City Council approved a two-year contractual agreement with Coplogic.

Osbourn said the program is more convenient for users than having to wait for a police officer to respond, and that the follow-up process is simpler.

Trends can be tracked more quickly when the information is fed directly into a database, according to an article in Law Enforcement Technology, and multiple language options make it simpler for non-English speakers to report crimes.

Similar systems have been employed by the San Francisco Police Department, Sacramento Police Department, and in smaller cities like Milpitas.

Incident types for which the online reporting system applies are: Harassing phone calls, identity theft, lost property, theft, vandalism, vehicle burglary and vehicle tampering.

ONLINE

www.marysville.ca.us/coplogic/start-report.html

If you answer yes to all five of the following questions, you can report an incident to the Marysville Police Department by way of the department’s new Online reporting system:
This is not an Emergency?
This incident occurred within the Marysville, California City limits?
Click here for the city map. If this incident did not occur within the red lines of the map, please visit the Sheriff's Office Website.
There are no known suspects or you were asked by the Marysville Police Department to file this incident online?
This did not occur on a State Freeway?

– from the Marysville Police Department Web page

CONTACT Appeal-Democrat reporter Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com