Last month the police department, using information technology provided by the LexisNexis company, quietly launched a "community crime map," accessed through the force's website under "crime statistics."
"It gives people the ability to see for themselves what's happening in their communities," Chief Roderick Porter said Friday. "It's good for people to know what's going on. (And) maybe it will encourage them to share information with us as well."
Deputy Chief James Baraja said the information comes from the emergency dispatch system and was "presented in a friendly format."
Users will first encounter a large map of the United States. Type in "Bridgeport, CT" where prompted and the visual zooms in on the city and its various neighborhoods, with the icons at various locations representing three categories of recent crimes the system tracks — residential and commercial burglaries and motor vehicle thefts.
Clicking on an individual icon provides some additional information, like the police report number, date, time and a partial address.
"We didn't want people's personal identifiers out there," Baraja said.
Normally, information on crimes and crime trends would require phone calls to the department or showing up in person to request the data.
"I would hook them up with one of our folks who works on tracking crime and they would crunch the numbers for you," Baraja recalled. "(Now) let's say you live in the North End and have a concern about stolen autos. You're going to be able to click on the North End (for) stolen autos instead of having to wait."
Over the last few years under former Chief Rebeca Garcia and now Porter there has been a greater effort to expand the offerings on the force's website to make policing in Bridgeport more transparent. Porter and Baraja said that was the driver behind improving the access to the crime statistics.
Notably the system only tracks property crimes like car thefts and burglaries. But Baraja said additional statistics were in the works.
"We're going to add more data to it," he said. "All the major felonious-type things and some quality-of-life things people are interested in."
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