TMCnet News
Redlands police calls shown in real time onlineREDLANDS, Mar 12, 2011 (Redlands Daily Facts - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Residents can see police calls online and track them in real time. The Police Department's new Computer Aided Dispatch system displays current calls, along with a description of the call and its status. Calls are displayed when police receive them and updated every two minutes, so viewers can see when an officer is assigned to a call, when an officer arrives at a call and when a call clears. "A lot of times we'll have somebody call in for a nonemergency and they're frustrated at the amount of time it takes an officer to respond to their call," said city spokesman Carl Baker. "This will hopefully help the public be able to see why it is being delayed." Baker said the system, which went live recently, includes a description of each call so users can see the number of calls ahead of theirs and the nature of each. Police Lt. Chris Catren said the program is another way the the Police Department can be transparent to the community. "It's another way to show residents what their police department is doing," Catren said. "People have a right to know where we are and the type of calls we handle. They can watch those calls as they progress and get an idea of when an officer might get to their particular call." Addresses aren't posted for most calls to protect the privacy of victims. Addresses are used only for calls that involve traffic problems, possible fires and events where the public is warned to stay away from the area for safety reasons. "We have our department Facebook page and we get a lot of questions about what's happening at certain locations," Catren said. "We're very open, really transparent, and we thought this might be a good resource for us to show what's happening and show that we are getting a continuous stream of calls -- a day in the life of a Redlands police officer." Baker said logs of the calls police receive are available on request and eventually will be available online. "Residents have a right to know," said Catren, "and it's out there for them to see if they're interested." Computer Aided Dispatch can be viewed at: http://cad.redlandspolice.org/cad.aspx. To see more of the Redlands Daily Facts, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com. Copyright (c) 2011, Redlands Daily Facts, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. |