Georgetown joins online crime-mapping program

Georgetown Mayor Bill West, Town Manager Gene Dvornick and Police Chief R.L. Hughes recently announced a new online crime-mapping program available immediately to residents as a tool to keep track of crime within the town.

West said, “This is one additional means for the town to help keep the public informed.” 

Dvornick said Georgetown is joining several other municipal agencies in making crime data available online. Dover, Milford, Newark, Smyrna and Wilmington currently have information available at CrimeMapping.com. Eventually, there will be a direct link on the town’s website.

Hughes feels strongly that this is another step in making the Georgetown Police Department a model, 21st century policing organization. He said it will further the department’s efforts to be transparent and accountable to citizens.

The new crime-mapping service is a web-based program developed by TriTech Software Systems to help law enforcement agencies provide the community with valuable information about recent crime activity in and around their neighborhoods. The town is paying TriTech a nominal fee to enable Georgetown citizens to participate in the new online program.

The data for the Georgetown-specific portion of the site is extracted from the GPD’s records system regularly, allowing citizens to view up to six months of crime data, or up to 1,000 records by various search categories. These include a date range, crime type or distance of an incident from a specific address. The data is illustrated on a map, and the various crimes are shown as icons, each containing general details of the incident. Dvornick said the new website service will also send custom alerts to citizens about updated crime data, letting citizens define what type of crime information they want to receive.

For more information, go to CrimeMapping.com.