The Ottawa Crime tool sorts reported crimes by date, time and category – everything from property crime to homicide – and pins the location on an online map.

“We’ll be the first large police force in the country doing this,” said Chief Vernon White. “Our goal in the past couple of years is to interact more and more with the community.”

The Ottawa Crime mapping tool was unveiled at an Ottawa Police Services Board meeting, on Monday, Oct. 27.

The site allows residents to sort through a variety of calls, including robberies, break-ins, stolen vehicles, sexual offenses and traffic complaints, over selected time frames: based on the prior day, seven days, monthly, 60 days, or over half a year.

Domestic assaults are not entered and no personal information will be used on the site, said White.

Each call is “pinned” to the Google map and users can click on the icon to see the date, time and reference number of the call. Police won’t enter house addresses on the site, using block increments instead to locate crimes.

“We’re hoping that residents and citizens will be better informed about what is going on in the community,” said Randy Mar, police director of corporate planning.

The service costs $199 a month to operate.

Police calls are taken from the Ottawa Police Computer Aided Dispatch system.

The site’s address is www.ottawapolice.ca.