The UC Davis Police Department launched a crime reporting system last month that provides the student community with a venue to report minor crimes online.
The police department worked with a software service company, COPLOGIC, to create a reporting system that will allow students and faculty to report crimes such as theft, vandalism, car burglary, lost property or other minor incidents online.
“We created this system to allow students to report minor crimes at their convenience without having to wait in line to speak to an officer,” said Mark Spangler, the police department’s Support Services manager. “We hope students will respond positively by filling out reports at their own convenience between classes.”
The crime must be minor and a non-emergency occurring on campus. Emergencies will not be accepted by the system and must be reported by calling 911 or (530) 572-1230.
“For those students who are hesitant to contact the police department, this will offer a different avenue to file reports,” said Dispatch Supervisor Leticia Garcia-Hernandez, who worked on the system configurations and implementation. “We’re still here for them 24/7 so people can still contact us and speak to officers in person if they prefer that.”
The system asks questions about the nature of the crime and allows the user to generate a description. The user must provide an email address, in case further investigation is deemed necessary.
The cases will be reviewed by the police department, and action will be taken as needed. Users will be able to print a copy of their filed report after its approval.
“The reports will go to the inbox of the sergeant who will review them and then distribute the approved reports to investigators,” said Spangler. “The response time of the police department will be the same if not faster than the regular way of reporting at a station.”
Within 24 hours of filing a report, students will either receive an approved copy of their report and a case number, a follow-up message asking for more information or a rejected copy of the report for cases that do not meet the criteria or should be filed with the city of Davis instead.
Garcia-Hernandez said she has already seen positive results from those students who have utilized the system and hopes students will continue taking advantage of this new avenue of reporting. Students also are optimistic regarding the service.
“I think students will use the system but will doubt its efficacy unless efforts to publicize its results are undertaken,” said undeclared first-year student Ryan Brobst.
