Maple Grove Police Introduce Online Crime Reporting Tool
Maple Grove residents and business owners now have a new way to report minor and most non-violent crimes through an online form.
Maple Grove police now have an online crime reporting platform that allows residents and business owners to report incidents that may not be violent or threatening in nature.
“It’s very user-friendly,” said Theresa Keehn, the Maple Grove Police Department’s administrative support manager. “You can use it on your smartphone, tablet, computer–it works great.”
The form helps the crime victim sort through details that allow the incident to be reported online, or the system uses certain keywords and questions to direct the person reporting the crime to call 911 instead.
“If your home has been broken into, I suggest you report it to an officer because that’s a burglary and that’s a little more serious than somebody opened up your unlocked car door and dug around inside your console,” said Keehn.
One of the aims of the program is to allow police officers more time to focus on community policing efforts and other crime prevention rather than taking calls and making reports on minor incidents.
A list of crimes that can be reported using the online service include:
- Parking complaints*
- Abandoned vehicles and bicycles
- Lost or missing property
- Internet or phone scams and fraud (if it’s identity fraud or money was stolen, please contact an officer)
- Property damage or vandalism
- Theft from vehicle (if license plates are stolen, please contact an officer)
- Thefts where force or threat of force was not a factor (if violence or the threat of violence or force was used, contact an officer)
The online reporting platform also allows those reporting the crime to get a printout quickly that can be used for insurance purposes or similar matters.
It also helps the police department compile statistics that can be used to spot and respond to certain crime trends.
“We can look at are there some hot spots going on we can look at–are there are a lot of thefts from vehicle going on? So we still use that information for data purposes,” said Keehn.
Still, Keehn and officers realize sometimes a victim still wants to speak with someone in-person for peace of mind.
“Even if it’s a non-emergency, when you’re talking to dispatch you can say, ‘I want to speak to an officer,’” she said. “if that officer, when you speak to them, tries to refer you back to online reporting, you can certainly say, ‘No, I’d rather talk to you and report it to you.’”
