Online crime reporting hits Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. – Investigators at the Portland Police Bureau say they're doing all they can to keep up with a rapidly advancing technological age. That's why they're unveiling a reporting system online for property crimes.

Portland Police Sergeant Wayne Kuechler said the new site, at Portlandonline.com/police, is for victims of crimes who can't personally meet with an officer to file a report. Kuechler said another benefit to the new site is how quickly a resident can print off a copy of the police report.

Citizens will have to wait a couple days for officers to be in contact. However, Kuechler said, online reporting "at least provides the opportunity for the citizen to get a real-time copy of the report to use for insurance purposes."

Before debuting the site in early January, Portland Police tested it for three months by enlisting the help of citizens calling in to make reports the old-fashioned way. Police directed those who were interested to the new Web site, receiving feedback on improvements to the site's look and functionality.

Easy does it
Keucher said an important factor in this new reporting tool is "ease of use" for Portland citizens.

"We wanted to make sure that the site would be reminiscent of other more famous Web sites," Kuechler said, "to ensure citizens would be familiar with how its functioned. This includes an overall clean look, [plus] the addition of lots of drop-down menus."

Even as the Portland Police Bureau embraces the digital age, Sergeant Kuechler stressed that this new online reporting system is not intended to replace "good old-fashioned" telephone or face-to-face crime reporting. 

"For whatever reason, there will still be citizens who won't feel comfortable sending their information through the Web, which is completely fine," Kuechler said. "This new site should just be considered complimentary, not mandatory."

At this time, the new site is not currently set up to handle reports of non-property crimes. In those cases citizens still will need to report by phone or in person.