Center Line

Center Line residents can track crime online

By Brian Louwers
C & G Staff Writer

» click to enlarge « Photo by Brian C. Louwers Residents can use Crimedar to track incidents that occurred their neighborhoods. Photo by Brian C. Louwers Residents can use Crimedar to track incidents that occurred their neighborhoods.

CENTER LINE — Crime tracking is now on Center Line’s radar.

The online crime tracking service Crimedar recently went live in the city, and residents are now able to see what happened on their streets and in their neighborhoods over the last month by clicking on a link on the city’s website.

Information about larcenies, burglaries, robberies, assaults, vandalism, drug busts and other crimes is included.

“Most of the officers that are on the road, with their daily briefing, know what’s happing in the city, where our hot spots are,” Center Line Public Safety Director Paul Myszenski said. “Crimedar is a great reference tool. It’s more for the public.”

Myszenski said Center Line dispatchers are tasked with uploading information about incidents into Crimedar. More information can be added later.

Anyone viewing the city’s Crimedar map can click the icons that appear for specific types of crimes to reveal details about incidents. Information can also be shared through a Facebook link.

The cost for the city to use Crimedar is about $1 a day and was approved as part of Center Line’s budget for the Public Safety Department.

“Hiding crime in the community is the last thing you want to do. Every city has crime,” Myszenski said. “You’re actually keeping them aware of what’s happening in their neighborhood and educating them as to what’s going on.

“You’ve got to help people help themselves sometimes. You can make yourself a victim,” Myszenski said.

Crimedar was developed two years ago by Pete Collins, of Royal Oak, after his car was broken into near his home.

Collins, a 42-year-old father of two, told C & G Newspapers that he thought there should be a way to find out what kind of crimes were taking place in his neighborhood.

“Had I known a crime had taken place near my home around the same time, chances are I would have been a little more cautious,” Collins said.

To check Crimedar’s map for Center Line, follow link for the Public Safety Department on the city’s website at www.centerline.gov/public safety3.html.

C & G Staff Writer Julie Snyder contributed to this report.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Brian Louwers at brianlouwers@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1089.