Arlington police add online crime-mapping

The Arlington Police Department has joined the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office in sharing fresh crime data with online mapping.

I wrote about the sheriff's office starting online crime-mapping in July. Want to know about burglaries in your neighborhood? That's a good place to start.

Arlington police also wanted to use the mapping service to help people in their city learn about crime and crime prevention, Police Chief Nelson Beazley said.

“It's just another tool to keep our communities aware of what's going in their neighborhoods,” he said.

The sheriff's office arranged for other local police agencies to use the service as well. The development comes as more and more local police departments are looking for new ways to use social media to connect with people in their communities.

You can see the results here: www.crimemapping.com/map/wa/snohomishcounty

Arlington's 911 call descriptions go into the service and are automatically generated on the website, Beazley said. The turnaround takes about a day, in part because the nature of the incident must be verified by officers.

“It's probably as close to real time as we're going to get,” he said.

The service is expected to officially go live for Arlington in early October.