On July 10th, 2014, the Owasso Police Department officially launched our new interactive crime mapping software to track reported criminal incidents and calls for police service in Owasso.
The fundamental basis for community policing involves cooperation between the citizens and the police, working together to keep our community safe. In order for the police and the citizens to work together effectively, both sides need to be informed of what problems are occurring and assist each other in addressing those problems. While we have made great strides in improving the information exchange through both traditional and social media, it is impossible to keep the citizens informed of every single issue or incident that might affect their community or in their specific neighborhood. To help improve this situation, our agency partnered with a private company, Public Engines ™, to provide this online crime mapping service.
Using mapping programs developed by Public Engines supported by data provided from OPD’s crime reporting and dispatch computer systems, incidents will be plotted on an interactive map. The map can be broadened to encompass the entire city or narrowed to focus on a specific neighborhood. By clicking on the pinned events displayed on the map, the user can access more detailed information about the specific incident. Twice daily, the police department sends updates to the mapping service. Citizens can display every incident in Owasso or filter that information to display only the selected date range and/or event type. Citizens may also create an alert which will monitor crimes for any chosen map view/location and will email the information on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
Because many criminal incidents deal with private/confidential information, a secured access version will be available for use only by the police officers and a redacted version will be available for use by the public. The police version will be used to detect crime trends/patterns more easily and develop more precise assignments for our uniformed officers and Street Crimes personnel. The public version can be used by our citizens to stay informed of the trends in their neighborhoods and notify the Owasso Police when they see something suspicious.
An informed public working in cooperation with local law enforcement is a powerful force to help maintain public safety. We hope that this new tool will assist our department both inform the public and provide predictive modeling for crime trends which can help us better utilize our resources for crime prevention.
The mapping service can be accessed by visiting cityofowasso.com and following the link on the Owasso Police Department page.
