June 27, 2007 - Online Reporting System The Ceres Police Division implemented its Online Reporting system in late 2005. It is intended as a service convenience for citizens who wish to make police reports for documentation and insurance purposes, but who do not want to wait for an officer to visit them in person. I am writing about this service because citizens use the system infrequently, and it is, perhaps, the result of lack of public knowledge. To be sure, Online Reporting serves important purposes, and saves time for both the police and persons wishing to file reports. This reporting mechanism is available for non-violent crimes, for which there are no apparent suspect leads or physical evidence to be collected. Some examples that qualify for Online Reporting are vandalism, thefts from a vehicle, lost or missing property, petty thefts, grand theft, fraudulent use of credit cards, lost or stolen credit cards, etc. For such crimes as sexual assaults, stolen vehicles, traffic collisions, kidnapping, robberies, personal assaults, violent crimes you should call 9-1-1 so that the police can respond as appropriate and investigate the case on a timely basis. If you are in doubt or have a question, you can call our dispatch center at 538-5713. Remember that it is important to call the dispatch center, for an in-person police response, when there are crimes featuring suspects or investigative leads. All reports are reviewed by police staff within 24-48 hours, holidays and weekends excluded. The report information is entered into our data base for the investigators' reference. Once a report is filed in this manner, the reporting party will receive a copy of the report they have filed via e-mail. After the report is received in the Police Records Bureau, it will be assigned a case number and then e-mailed back to the reporting party. While the Online Reporting system serves well for insurance purposes, we also use the information for crime pattern and trend mapping, case clearances and basic police resource deployment management. It is also not unusual for a "no suspects" case to be revived after a perpetrator has been arrested for other crimes. We are able to use method of operation factors and other techniques to link the in-custody criminal to some of those previously "open" cases. Online reporting can be accessed at www.ci.ceres.ca.us (the City of Ceres web page), with a police report link in the left margin under "Customer's Service Request Forms." The form is accompanied by specific instructions that most people will find easy to follow. Clearly, there is more we can do to publicize this Online Reporting program for the public's use. I thought this column would be a good place to start. Feel free to call us for assistance with this.