Police reports can be made online in Beavercreek


Online reporting tool

Some examples of what the system can be used for:

Crime tip

Harassing phone call

Identity theft

Lost property

Vacation house watches

Criminal damage to property

What the system cannot be used for:

Emergencies

Incidents outside of Beavercreek

Reporting known suspects or if there is evidence

Hate crimes

— Beavercreek city website

BEAVERCREEK — If you live in Beavercreek, you can fight crime online.

About a dozen residents already have submitted minor incident reports via the city’s website — ci.beavercreek.oh.us.

The Coplogic system also can be used for crime tips or to commend or complain about an officer. It also provides another way for residents to get report numbers for insurance purposes.

“This program was purchased with federal forfeiture monies ($10,000) for residents to report minor crimes at their convenience online without having to wait for an officer to respond, when no follow-up is needed and suspects are unknown,” Beavercreek Police Chief John Turner said.

Beavercreek is one of a handful of Ohio cities and 200 in North America to use the Coplogic online submission program. The first two Ohio cities to offer the service were Cleveland in 2008 and Columbus in 2009. The Stark County Sheriff’s Office and Lorain Police Department also offer the service.

Dayton police implemented an in-house program similar to Coplogic last July. Since then, more than 1,400 incident reports have been submitted online.

“The goal of it is to free up officers’ time for more significant incidents,” said Tom Lachey, President of Optica Consulting, one of the city of Dayton’s in-house technical services. “I think that idea’s going to catch on as police resources are dwindling somewhat in terms of budgets.”

Other local police departments have some online elements such as vacation house checks, tip submissions and online accident databases, but none advertise the ability to submit online incident reports on their websites.

“If the citizen calls in and wants to see a police officer, the dispatchers are informed to send a police officer to respond,” Beavercreek police Sgt. Jim Wuebben stressed.

James Lee of Coplogic, Inc. in San Ramon, Calif., claims that agencies using Coplogic software have been able to reduce the number of calls requiring an officer on scene by up to 30 percent and to strategically reallocate resources.

Lee also said agencies using Coplogic saved more than $15 million collectively in 2010 and currently are saving more than $1 million every month.

Wuebben said a bonus is the “relative ease for the homeowner, the citizen to make these at their own leisure. It’s a 24-hour system. Any time of day, they can make these reports. They don’t have to wait for an officer to respond if they don’t want to. It’s a just convenience matter.”

The system is not truly anonymous since contact information is required for verification, but it does allow users to bypass calling a dispatcher.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-6951 or mgokavi@DaytonDailyNews.com.

About the Author