City Council to Consider Proposal for Residents to File Online Police Reports

The Monrovia City Council will vote Tuesday on a proposal to adopt technology that would allow residents to file low-priority police reports online to save time for police officers, according to an agenda report.

If the plan is approved, the Monrovia Police Department will purchase a Digital Online Reporting System from Coplogic Incorporated for $16,000 that residents could use to file police reports themselves from their home computer.

The department handled 4,433 police reports last year and the majority of them were compiled with insubstantial evidence, according to Police Chief Jim Hunt, who authored the report.

"Research shows that approximately 60% of these investigations are for what we call 'cold reports,'" the report states. "Cold reports are for cases where the suspect was not seen and there are no investigative leads or evidence to further an investigation. These types of reports are often lower priority level response calls and the citizen may have to wait for an officer to respond while the officer handles other higher priority calls for service first."

Under the proposed system, residents could file reports online and they would be sent straight to the department's watch commander for review. The watch commander would then decide how to proceed.

Citizens could still request an in-person report with a police officer if they so desired, according to the report.