Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Sonora PD press release re: introduction of Citizen RIMS

The Sonora Police Department, in cooperation with Sun Ridge Systems, is pleased to introduce Citizen RIMS. Today, the public is used to being able to look up just about anything on the Internet, which includes “government” information. The Sonora Police Department knows publishing such information is good public relations. There is also the benefit of saving personnel time, by reducing the number of requests for information they must handle.


The Citizen RIMS software lets the public view crime data available via the Internet. The idea is to make as much information available to the public in an easy to use and attractive web site.
Some of the features of the program are;
Live incident mapping: This shows what’s going on, mapping active calls for service. Clicking on the map icon for an incident displays (limited) data available for the incident. This function also has a feature that lets the user “slide” a control on the screen to move through what occurred at any point in the past 24 hours. For example, news media or citizens can locate an incident that happened earlier in the day. When mapped, an incident location is deliberately blurred to the nearest hundred block level.
Incident mapping: This is a pin mapping for historical RIMS data with the user picking the date span to be mapped. It is otherwise similar to the Live Incident Mapping function using the same mapping.
Crime mapping: This is the common crime pin mapping feature where the user picks a date frame and the crime types/categories to be mapped. For RIMS, crime data equates to cases. Clicking on a mapped case icon shows more info about the case.
Arrests: An arrest log displays arrests for the past 30 days. The log displays basic information, but rolling the cursor over a listed arrest shows personal data (allowed by statute/law) and the mug shot of the arrestee.
Crime Charts: This function summarizes crime data in easily understood charts, with year to year comparisons.
Stolen Vehicles: This lists recently stolen vehicles.
Alerts: This feature lets site visitors subscribe to a free service that emails new incident/crime data on a daily or weekly basis to them.
The link to the site is located at; spd.crimegraphics.com. The link can also be located on the Sonora Police Department’s web page under the General Information or Links tabs located at the top of the web page. Under these tabs the program is titled, “Crime and Arrest Information.”