Want to know what crimes have been occurring in your neighborhood within the past five days?

There’s an app for that.

Manteca Police have rolled out a new online crime map that gives users the ability to spot trends in their neighborhood or near their workplace.

Police Chief Nick Obligacion is hopeful it will encourage citizens to help reduce their chances of become crime victims. The online system is not costing the city or users a cent.

“It is part of our promise to be as transparentas possible with the people we serve,” Obligacion said.

The program known as RAIDS Online developed by BAIR Analytics not only fills the gap left in the department when the crime analyst position was eliminated but it provides the same services for officers but much quicker.

Obligacion said a crime analyst would develop maps on a weekly basis that would be used in briefings before shifts started to alert officers of trends of where crime is taking place so resources could be directed toward the crime hot spots. Now RAIDS Online uses police reports to provide that information as it is entered. The public just like officers will be able to get up-to-date crime activity information.

RAIDS Online automatically syncs with the police department’s records system to keep information updated online and in the mobile app. The system cleans and geo codes the crime data, then it displays all the incidents on a map, grid, and analytics dashboard along with some basic information about incidents including the type of crime, location type, block-level address, date and time.

It can be displayed by time periods and crime type. As a result, you can find out what area of Manteca, at what time of day and during what day of the week is most likely to be where specific crimes take place.

While police will use it to redirect efforts in areas experiencing more crime, Obligacion is hopeful it will make citizens using it more vigilant and encourage them to take steps to reduce their chances of becoming a crime victim.

“Most thefts are crimes of opportunity,” the police chief said. “Just last night we had a case where a resident left their laptop on the front seat of their locked car in front of their house. The window was broken and the laptop stolen.”

Obligacion is hopeful that citizens using the RAIDS Online will be reminded to not do things like leaving valuables locked in plain sight if they access information either via their home computer or mobile device and can quickly see from a map where and when crimes such as auto burglary are occurring.

The chief noted the system helps make the police more efficient in deploying resources.

At the same time the public can get almost a virtual current snapshot of what the police are dealing with when it comes to crime.

The app does not list traffic stops or any type of activity that doesn’t generate a crime report.