Kalispell Police unveil online crime mapping

A month after community members asked Kalispell Police Chief Roger Nasset for a more detailed accounting of crime in the city, his department rolled out an interactive online map.

“It went live yesterday,” Nasset said Wednesday. “I’m pretty excited about it. This is top-notch.”

The map was unveiled at the second Coffee with the Chief meeting Nasset has hosted in conjunction with Sykes’ Diner. The meetings take place on the second Wednesday of every month at the diner.

Nasset said the crime map is “a direct reflection of that first meeting,” where community members asked for more specific details about crimes happening in their town.

He hopes the map will help inform people who in turn will have more communication with police and help keep the town safer.

The map does not give specific addresses of crimes or include sex and domestic violence crimes to protect personal privacy. The information will be updated weekly. People can see what type of crimes are happening in their neighborhoods; bright colors indicate areas that are hot spots for criminal activity.

“I think you will find it’s a great program,” Nasset said.

Crime Analyst Brooke Basset and Geographic Information Specialist Jason Singleton are the brains driving the map, Nasset said.

Few people at Wednesday’s meeting had gotten to explore the map, but Investigations Capt. Scott Warnell said he was glad to see that the response to the community’s suggestion.

“It is important to us as a department, but it’s important to the community, too,” Warnell said.

Kalispell is one of many jurisdictions across Montana to implement some sort of crime mapping tool that the public can access. The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office, Bozeman Police and Missoula City Police all have crime map data available to the public.

To view the Kalispell map, go to www.kalispell.com/police and click on “Crime Statistics Map.”