CrimeView

Every month the Police Department submits a territory report, the purpose of which is to provide a concise report of calls for service and reports made by territory in West Des Moines. There are 5 territories for which data are reported. This report can be used to identify the most common call for service and what locations generate the most activity.

During October there were a total of 2704 calls for service and 569 case reports in West Des Moines. During this same time period in 2005, there were 2794 calls for service and 642 case reports. Activity in 2006 indicates a decrease of 90 (-3%) calls for service and a decrease of 73 case reports (-11%).

To get more comprehensive statistics about crime in the City of West Des Moines, take a look at CrimeView. This is a site we are providing in conjunction with the Clive and Urbandale Police Departments to make crime data available to the public. You are able to search for crimes in your community and produce maps and reports of this information.

You can search for crime data according to crime type, time period, geographic boundary or proximity to an address or known location, such as a school. Geographic boundaries include city boundaries and police territories. You can search for arson, assault, auto theft, commercial and residential burglary, criminal mischief, homicide, indecent exposure, larceny, robbery, and theft from auto incidents as well as traffic accidents occurring in your community within the past 90 days.

For example, if I go to Crime View, and select "traffic accidents," I can search an address or intersection for detailed information. If I input "50th and Mills Civic Parkway" as an intersection, and choose the last 60 days as the time period, I am shown a map that identifies any accidents that took place 1/2 mile or less from that vicinity in the last couple months. If I click on the "report" button and then "view detail" on the screen that pops up, I can see there were eight accidents in that 1/2 mile radius, one involving a deer and the rest property damage. This is a neat tool I hope the curious take advantage of. In addition to the above link, it can also be found on the Police Department's homepage accessed via www.wdm-ia.com.