Sebastopol Police launch new crime visualization tool
Citizen RIMS lets you see what's happening crime-wise in Sebastopol
Earlier this week, the Sebastopol Police Department announced the launch of an intriguing new online tool called Citizen RIMS (sebastopol.citizenrims.com), which provides a transparent look at police activity in town, from crime statistics to recent arrests. There’s even a heat map that shows the town’s crime “hot spots.”
The tool is a feature of the department’s RIMS Integrated Public Safety Software, made by Sun Ridge Systems. (RIMS stand for Records Information Management Systems.) Sebastopol’s Citizen RIMS was set up and configured by Chris Mooney, the department’s nighttime dispatcher and IT manager.
Mooney said the system pulls directly from the department’s database, though it’s not showing everything yet because he’s still configuring it.
“It pulls from our data, but I do monitor it,” he said. “There’s things that we cannot publicize, especially when it involves juveniles, so I have to make sure that’s in compliance,” Mooney said.
Likewise, for privacy reasons, mapping is plotted using the general vicinity and not the exact location of an incident.
Here’s a page-by-page breakdown of features from the Sebastopol Police Department’s Facebook page:
The crime and activity page displays calls for service and case reports completed by the Sebastopol Police Department. This includes emergency and non-emergency incidents and cases that may or may not be criminal in nature. Data on this map is compiled from calls for service and officer-initiated activity.
The missing persons page displays people reported missing to the Sebastopol Police Department. Individuals on this list are still reported missing and will be removed once located.
The stolen vehicles page displays vehicles reported stolen to the Sebastopol Police Department within the past 365 days. Vehicles on this list are still outstanding and will be removed once located. (Please do not take any direct action if you see any of the stolen vehicles listed. If you see one of the vehicles, contact the Sebastopol Police Department at 707-829-4400.)
The arrests page displays adults that have been arrested by the Sebastopol Police Department within the past 30 days.
The press releases page displays current and past press releases and informational updates created by the Sebastopol Police Department.
The stop data statistics page displays Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) data. This information includes the officers’ perceptions of people stopped, the reason for stops, and actions taken during stops as required by the California RIPA Regulations.
The crime statistics page displays National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data. This information includes the types of crime reported in a specific jurisdiction as defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The security camera registration page will allow residents to register their security camera information. The police department will not have access to the camera system but will be aware that a camera exists when investigating a crime in and around the neighborhood.
There is also a button that allows residents to sign up for a weekly or daily police log of activity within the City of Sebastopol.
“All this is public knowledge on the California Department of Justice website, but now it’s on Citizen RIMS,” Mooney said, which makes it far more accessible.
Mooney grew up in Sebastopol but now lives in Windsor. “I started here [at the Sebastopol Police Department] as an Explorer, a youth volunteer, back in 1994,” he said, “and 31 years later, I’m still here.”
“Being a small department, we have our primary job and then we also have our collateral duties,” he said. Mooney jokes that he has so many collateral duties that he’d need a three-sided business card to list them all. In addition to being one of the department’s public safety dispatchers and its IT manager, he also oversees the police volunteer program.
Mooney hopes that interested residents will check out Sebastopol Citizen RIMS and explore all it has to offer.
“It allows us to be as transparent as we can to the public,” he said. “We want to be transparent, and this system allows us to do that.”
The filtering is working on a MacBook. I noticed that the icon for drunk driving is a foaming beer mug and laughed out loud. Has anyone ever looked at how much crime occurs in Sebastopol because of the two state roads?
The map filtering does not function or layer the activity. I’m finding it a bit useless. should be able to filter layers and the activity icons provide info on the incident. My device is an Ipad. Please advise.