The Surrey RCMP is expanding its online crime reporting tool, with hopes of forcing bad drivers to clean up their act.
The crime reporting portal was launched last June as part of a pilot project, allowing for residents to notify police of non-emergency crimes. The Surrey RCMP says that since launching, they’ve received 648 reports of crime and lost property.
Now, the online tool has been expanded so that users will have the ability to report driving complaints, such as excessive speeding or using a cellphone while behind the wheel.
“Residents can report poor driving behaviours that are not in progress, such as speeding, distracted driving, or failing to follow road signs or signals,” writes Cpl. Joanie Sidhu in a release.
The BC RCMP launched online reporting as a means of freeing up a detachment’s call for service, “allowing call takers and frontline officers to focus on higher priority calls.”
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Reporting online also helps police identify areas of concern, such as those with higher crime trends or driving complaints.
In addition to filing online complaints for poor driving behaviour, Surrey residents can also report damage and mischief to property or vehicles (under $5,000), hit-and-runs to unoccupied vehicles or property, theft under $5,000, and lost property under $5,000.
“We are happy to see residents using the Online Crime Reporting system to report less serious offences in Surrey,” says Supt. Manly Burleigh, Surrey RCMP Operations Officer.
“While a police officer may not attend the location of each specific report, this information is still vitally important in helping us determine crime and traffic hot spots, and officer deployments.”
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