Small-time crimes now much easier to report
The NYPD on Wednesday revealed a new web service allowing residents to report low-level crimes from the comfort of their homes — or on their phones.
Residents reporting lost property, graffiti complaints, petty larceny or misdemeanor criminal mischief no longer need to call police or go to their local police station. Instead, all they have to do is log on to the NYPD Online Reporting Service at NYPDonline.org.
“It’s a pretty big change from where we were a couple of weeks ago,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Strategic Initiatives Danielle Pemberton said Wednesday.
The four categories were selected after the department “looked at all the touch points and interactions the average person had with the department,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Information Technology Matthew Fraser.
“We looked for ways we could digitize some of those touch points so we can give people access to those services without them walking into a precinct, waiting in line and things of that nature.”
An average of 143,000 complaints are filed with the NYPD each year from these four categories alone — amounting to 23% of the department’s annual complaint numbers, officials said.
Once someone files a complaint online, they will receive an email confirming receipt. They will also receive a followup email with a complaint number and may get a call from a police officer if more investigation is needed.
More complaint categories will be added to the online portal in the future but felony crimes such as assault, robbery and grand larceny still have to be filed in person with the police.
“This is another step forward into modern, 21st-century policing,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a statement.
Shea said the new online portal will “increase transparency and improve accountability to the people we serve.”
“It will make police services more easily accessible,” added Shea, who noted the department has already put out disciplinary information on its cops online and has posted dashboards about hate crimes, departmental demographics and use of force complaints.