Princeton Police Launch Online Crime Tracking Map

Princeton, NJ -- Princeton Police will be providing a new service to keep residents of the town informed about crime in the town.

On Thursday, the police department announced a new partnership with BAIR Analytics, a LexisNexis company, to create an online crime map called RAIDS Online.

RAIDS Online maps and analyzes crime data, alerts Princeton citizens about crimes in their area, and allows the Princeton Police Department to quickly alert the public about crimes as they occur.

Princeton citizens can view a map and grid with all of the crimes in their area, sign up for neighborhood watch reports that automatically email a breakdown of recent crime activity, and submit an anonymous tip about a crime directly to their law enforcement agency.

RAIDS Online automatically syncs with the Princeton Police Department records system to keep crime information updated online and in the mobile app.

RAIDS Online cleans and geocodes the crime data, then displays all of the incidents on a map, grid and analytics dashboard along with some basic information about the incidents, including the type of crime, location type, block‐level address, date and time.

BAIR Analytics offers RAIDS Online and the RAIDS Online Mobile app as a free service to any law enforcement agency that wishes to participate. RAIDS Online is ad‐free, and BAIR Analytics does not sell the data to third party vendors, thus the agency remains in complete control over their data, police said.

“We wanted to do something to help law enforcement in these tough economic times. We consider this a basic service that we are more than happy to provide to the public and our law enforcement friends,” said Bair, a former police officer and analyst.

RAIDS Online Mobile helps citizens to better understand crime trends, and to lower crime in their area. Recent crime incidents are displayed on a map or listed in a grid. Users can click on an incident for more information or display a hotspot map based on the crimes that are currently in display.

Users can also sign up for neighborhood watch reports that automatically email any recent crime activity on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule. The app makes all of this information accessible anywhere from a user’s mobile device. The RAIDS Online Mobile app is available for free on the App Store.

Anyone can visit Princeton’s crime map from the Crime Mapping link on the Princeton Police Department website at

http://www.princetonnj.gov/police/RAIDS.html.

They can also go directly to the RAIDS Online website at http://www.raidsonline.com/?address=Princeton%20NJ.

RAIDS online can also be accessed through the Princeton Police Department’s Facebook page by clicking the “View Crime Map” tab.