Police reports now available online

Published 9:11 pm Tuesday, February 10, 2009

EVERETT — A new, Web-based reporting system used by the local police department will save time and get officers out on the street.

The Everett Police Department this December implemented a system that allows victims of certain nonemergency crimes in Everett to file police reports online.

“Everything we can do out of the office to free an officer, we are doing,” said Everett Police Sgt. Dan Johnson, who works closely with the system.

Eligible crimes include graffiti, vandalism and minor thefts.

The form requires the same information as a regular police report filed by an officer, Johnson said.

When leaving crime and drug tips, people don’t have to provide any contact information.

The department is the first law enforcement agency in Snohomish County to adopt the online reporting system already used by many departments throughout the nation, Johnson said.

Federal Way, Renton and a few other cities in Washington adopted the system as well.

“Once it becomes successful to us, we’ll have other (Snohomish County) agencies looking at it,” Johnson said.

As of last week, Johnson counted 117 reports.

Johnson reviews all new reports daily to make sure they’ve been filled out correctly. He gets back to the sender if more information is needed.

If your report is approved, Johnson assigns it a case number and directs it to the appropriate department, which usually responds the same day or the day after.

That way, 911 emergency operators are not taken up with nonemergency incidents, Johnson said. “That’s kind of a nice, timesaving thing.”

The department investigates online reports the same way as the regular ones, but officers who otherwise would be filing these reports can now devote their time to emergency incidents, Johnson said.

“The reason I’m excited about it is: It’s going to benefit every patrol officer on the street,” he said.

Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452 or kyefimova@heraldnet.com.