JCC Police Offer New Crime Watch Tool To Citizens

By WYDaily Staff Thursday, December 23, 2010

The James City County Police Department has recently launched a new public crime-mapping website so citizens can keep track of local crimes.

Called RAIDS (Regional Analysis & Information Data Sharing) Online, the program pinpoints and describes crimes on a Google map, and also offers a data grid and analytics so citizens can learn more about crimes in the county. This also allows the police to get data to the public faster, according to a press release issued Wednesday.

RAIDS Online uses colored maps, icons, and symbols to deliver easy-to-read crime information at all zoom levels, from a national level down to specific neighborhoods. James City County citizens can also sign up for neighborhood crime alerts to receive daily, weekly, or monthly emails with a breakdown of crimes within a 5-mile radius of any address.

Currently, the data is entered manually by police officers, according to police spokesman Maj. Steve Rubino, but the goal is to have the data uploaded automatically from police records on a daily basis. The database will house up to two years’ worth of crimes, but citizens can refine their map views or searches by date to exclude older cases.

James City County Police Department has obtained RAIDS Online at no cost, and there is no cost to people who access the program.

On the police department’s crime analysis website, citizens can access the crime map as well as view weekly crime reports and the county’s top ten most wanted list.