Park City Web site helping track crime

Curious about crime in your neighborhood? With a point and a click of a computer mouse, Park City residents can now get a virtual view of what's happening in their city.

City police have been mapping their calls for service since September and posting the information online, Park City police officer Chris Gebhardt said. Gebhardt, who joined the Park City police after working in Washington, D.C., administers the site for the department.

Residents can go to the department's Web site, www.parkcity.org/citydepartments/police, and click on the "Incident Maps" link on the left side of the page. That takes the curious to a description of the information presented and a chart listing the various types of calls, the days and dates of the week, as well as the number of incidents that occurred on each day.

A click on a type of incident — traffic violations or criminal trespassing, for example — brings up a map of the city, with numbered bullet points where each incident occurred.

"(Mapping) allows you to see the data in a spatial format and allows you to ask the question, 'Is there something else in the data than this just being a burglary?' like are they happening in the same area of town or neighborhood," said Gebhardt. "The answers are usually things patrol officers already know, but it presents a great view for administrators and others looking at it over (time)."

That can then help a police department take proactive action to prevent crime or at least identify a crime trend to watch for, Gebhardt said.

In Washington, D.C., where he was first introduced to crime mapping, using the maps to plan police staff became a way of life, Gebhardt said. Each of that city's seven police divisions analyzed crime maps and used that data to, over time, reduce various kinds of criminal activity.

Park City police have begun to incorporate the maps into daily briefings, posting a hard copy of the map on the wall for officers to review.

"We did our homework on this and found that those departments that do mapping are better aware of what's going on, and by extension the public is better able to address crime issues," Kirk said. "It empowers (the public) with information."

And that fits with Park City's "community policing" philosophy of trying to build a cooperative partnership with the public to keep crime down in the city, Kirk said.

Gebhardt agrees.

"If (residents) know they have a burglary problem in the neighborhood, then when they see a suspicious vehicle, they'll be more likely to call us," he said. "I hope it clarifies for people that there really is crime here. Not that downtown is a horrible place . . . but there are some serious things that happen up here that need to be addressed."