Huntley police launch new crime mapping website

Huntley residents now can browse an online map of crimes in their neighborhoods and throughout the village.

The police department recently implemented the web-based crime mapping program. Residents can view a map of certain crimes - without exact addresses and names to protect privacy - and calls for service. The program is designed to improve communication with the community and reduce crime through better informed residents.

The map is available at huntley.il.us.

"It's relatively user-friendly," Deputy Chief Michael Klunk said. "You just navigate throughout the map to look through specific neighborhoods."

Crime mapping is used by law enforcement to map, visualize and analyze crime patterns.

The McHenry County Sheriff's Office and Elgin use similar crime mapping programs, Klunk added.

"It's not obviously a police report," Klunk said. "It does give a generality of what's going on in specific areas throughout the community."

The information remains on the website for 30 days. It will help ease residents' minds and answer questions about police activity in their neighborhoods, Klunk said.

"Not all of these situations are necessarily criminal in nature," he pointed out.

Klunk said the map also can help police generate tips on neighborhood crimes, such as burglaries, if officers weren't able to interview some witnesses during the initial canvassing.

"Somebody may have been driving by there, or the resident of a house that we have not spoken to, they may have additional information," he said. "If you click on the incident, on the bottom, it actually has a tip line right there."

The police department's tip line is (847) 515-5333.

"We live in the information age and more and more people are looking for information," Klunk said. "This is just kind of an easy way to be able to fulfill a need for information as best as we can."