The Valdosta Police Department has expanded its commitment to the community by offering an online incident reporting service.

The service was added to the city’s website a few weeks ago and has already been utilized by some citizens.

This service does not replace the kiosk center set up at the police department for filing complaints. It is simply an added enhancement, one designed to make it more convenient for citizens to report a misdemeanor offense.

Valdosta Police Cmdr. Eugene Bell noted that the purpose of this new capability is twofold.

“The online service allows citizens the flexibility to report incidents 24 hours a day from any location where they have access to a computer and Internet,” he said. “In addition to that, it saves officers from having to respond to take reports that can be handled at the initial stage electronically.”

Bell added that not all the crimes can be handled through the online service or kiosk. Crimes such as theft, damage to property, trespassing, simple assault and simple battery are considered to be misdemeanors and can be reported online or at the kiosk. The more serious crimes will still have to be phoned into the 911 emergency service.

There are some requirements to using these services:

• The incident must have occurred within the city limits of Valdosta.

• The complainant must provide an e-mail address.

• The complaint must not be an emergency or a crime in progress.

Once the report is made and approved by a supervisor, Bell said the complainant will receive a message via e-mail confirming that the report was received and a case number will then be issued. If a follow-up investigation is warranted, the complainant will be contacted by an officer or detective.

Bell said that it is of the utmost importance that the complainant provides as much information as possible, i.e., date, time and location of incident, information about the suspect (if known), value amount (if property was stolen), and so on.

The commander also added that the turnaround time of each complaint will depend upon the workload of the supervisor, but generally, each complaint will be reviewed during the supervisor’s day shift, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

“Our main goal is to keep officers on the streets, fighting crime and searching for those who have committed crimes,” Bell said. “This does not mean the misdemeanor crimes are not as important as the felony crimes; it just decreases some of the workload for our officers and provides a better service to the community.”

In 2010, the Valdosta Police Department received 8,200 calls for service, many of which were for less offensive, misdemeanor crimes. Bell said for each of the calls, an officer responded.

The online service can be found by visiting www.valdostacity.com and clicking on the departments link, then the police link.