Color-coded crime
Relax. It’s not a story about racial profiling.
There’s a new electronic map displaying the location of nearly every traffic stop, call for service or help or other crime that happens in Mono County.
The Mono County Sheriff’s Department has launched Citizen RIMS, a crime graphics map. The system is an extension and upgrade of the department’s current RIMS, or computer-aided dispatch system. The map provides the location and nature of calls and crimes, updated every four hours.
Mammoth Lakes Police calls are not yet integrated into the system but incidents are mapped in the town when Sheriff’s deputies assist.
Public Information Officer Jennifer Hansen, credited with spearheading the project said, “This is a benefit to the public as it allows for our communities to take a real time look at the activities happening in their areas including incident mapping, crime mapping, arrests and alerts.”
When the map comes up on the screen, so does a key of the call types and the default “pin” setting. A map displays colored pins at specific locations of incidents, different colors denote a different type of incident from “possible hazards” and “property theft” to “animal/wildlife” or a fire call.
Click on the pin, such as the orange, number 4 pin, for “property/theft” in Mammoth near Snowcreek Golf to reveal there was a vandalism call at 9:38 a.m. on July 22 on the 1200 block of Old Mammoth Road. A log note was taken.
The activities can also be viewed as a “heat map” with areas where crime has occurred or calls have come in, shaded blue. More calls mean deeper blues and into reds and violets. The information can be searched by date and all the information will remain on the site and be searchable; as much as server space can hold, Hansen said.
The map can be found through the Sheriff’s website, monosheriff.org, or at, mcsd.crimegraphics.com/2013/default.aspx.
There’s not much detail about incidents, but its not a police blotter. Arrest information is not provided until the case has been approved, Hansen explained. She said this could take days or weeks.
And not all calls are uploaded. Some cases are an active investigation or need to protect the identity of a victim of juvenile that may be involved.
Hansen said the upgrade is being paid by the Sheriff’s Office budget. Sun Ridge Systems is the software and systems provider for RIMS and assisted in the upgrade.
