Bensalem Residents Have New Way Of Reporting Crime
By Tim Jimenez
BENSALEM, Pa. (CBS) - There's now a new, digital way of reporting crime in Bensalem, Bucks County.
It's very convenient accroding to the township's Public Safety Director Fred Harran:
"It's a self-reporting system that allows people to make certain amount of police reports from their house or from their iPads or wherever they want."
There's now a "File a Police Report" link at the Bensalem Police Department website. Residents can report on eight different issues, including abandoned vehicles, bike thefts, graffiti and child custody disputes.
"Another tool in our toolbox to keep police on the streets, patrolling and doing some aggressive patrol work and locking up bad guys instead of taking some reports that, maybe, we don't actually have to put a sworn police officer out there to do," Harran said.
The reports are put into the record management system and looked at by a police supervisor.
Harran says this isn't replacing phone calls to police. Residents are urged to do that if they're more comfortable. And it's definitely not a replacement for 9-1-1 for emergencies.
