The people of Killeen now have the ability to track crime in their neighborhood from their computers, it's all thanks to a new online community crime map on the home page of the Killeen Police Department's website.
Once you select Killeen it allows you to track crime activity dating back to 2010. The crimes are updated daily by city police officers and are even broken down into categories including aggravated assault, home burglary and theft among other crimes.
One Killeen man says although his neighborhood is typically quiet, it gets rowdy on the weekends so he's not surprised his area popped up on the crime map for 2 aggravated assaults.
"There's just a lot of people, alcohol, drinking, that's probably what leads to assault" says Killeen resident Charlie Haynes.
He went on to say that he hopes this new tool will help officers recognize a repeat problem area and in turn respond to the scene faster.
"We shouldn't be having to wait between 5-15 minutes for somebody to come down here, since they're right down the street there's no reason they shouldn't be here within a few minutes" says Haynes.
While Charlie isn't sure how effective the map will be he says he can already think of some ways it might help a mom know where her kids should or shouldn't play, or even help him know where he should or shouldn't take a walk.
"It will help people with kids probably know where their kids can or cannot go unsupervised. If I want to go somewhere with my dogs I can probably just see where I can walk and where I can't walk" says Haynes.
The map also allows users to sign up for alerts to receive the latest information on recent crime activity in the area. For more information on the map and how it works visit the Killeen Police Department's website at www.killeenpd.com