LEWISTON — Crime has been up in your neighborhood, you’re sure of it. Or you want to move to the edge of the city but first need to know how safe the area is.

No problem. Lewiston police have made a crime mapping service available to anyone. Arrest and offense data dating back to January 2009 can be viewed on the Internet.

Police say the data is updated daily and will eventually span back two years. Offenses are divided into all major crime categories, as well as an “other” category that incorporates everything else. 

Advanced features are available for those who want to break the information down. For instance, users can filter the map by date range and crime type. They can view analytical layers such as a hot spot or call density map, which recalculates based on the criteria entered.

Ratchet up the research a little more and a user can get a look at things like temporal topology — that is, what days of the week or hours of those days tend to see spikes or lulls in crime.

Users can also sign up for emergency alerts from the Citizen on Patrol function or receive automated e-mails about crimes that are happening in their neighborhood.   

“Our goal is to utilize social and news media, directed e-mails and this online mapping service to provide the public with every opportunity to stay informed about the incidents that are occurring in our neighborhoods,” said Lewiston police Crime Analyst Andrew Robitaille. “Citizens now have an avenue to obtain crime statistics and data on a daily, weekly, annual and instantaneous basis by virtue of our Facebook and Twitter pages, annual report (available on our website), weekly community crime bulletin (distributed via e-mail as well as print media) and Raids Online.”   

Raids Online is a free service to both law enforcement and the public. It is built on Google maps technology and incorporates satellite views as well as topographical data.