COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KMTV) — The Council Bluffs Police Department has launched a new "calls for service" dashboard designed to provide residents with real-time information about public safety issues in their community.
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Police Chief Matt Davis and Management Systems Specialist Morgan Goslar rolled out the tool last week, which updates approximately 15 minutes after a call comes in to police.
"The insights that we've gained is the dashboard data has validated a lot of the sense that our officers have had of the community," Davis said.
The dashboard allows neighbors to learn more about the types of calls made to Council Bluffs Police, with the goal of using crime data to start conversations between law enforcement and the community.
"So, our hope is that we use the crime data to start a conversation," Davis said. "But, then now, we can have, we can start to have a conversation with the community about this because we can start the conversation with the data."
The "calls for service" dashboard is not the only platform for viewing public safety information in Council Bluffs. The Planning Means Prevention coalition — a group made up of social service organizations — helped build an alcohol monitoring system as part of substance abuse prevention efforts.
Prevention Specialist Maggie Ballard said making invisible problems visible is crucial for prevention, even when it comes to legally and socially acceptable alcohol consumption.
"But we know that it still causes a lot of problems and it goes hand in hand, more often than now, with a lot of crimes," Ballard said.
Mayor Matt Walsh said social media often spreads misinformation about local crime, and he hopes the new dashboard will provide accurate information to residents.
"Perception becomes reality and there's a perception that crime is up, which is actually not true. Crime is significantly down," Walsh said.
By the end of the year, the police department plans to roll out a more comprehensive crime statistics dashboard to further enhance transparency with the community.
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