CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Online services are now available for the Robstown Police Department. On the police department's section of the City's website you can now submit a request for routine patrolling, the criminal trespassing authority, and even submit racial profiling complaints.
To ensure the authenticity of each request, certain measures have been put in place, as well as consequences for those who abuse the system.
Robstown Police Chief Mike Tamez highlighted a few main reasons why an online option for police reporting was needed.
"This tool definitely helps keep our officers on the road longer, right where they need to be out working in the field and in public," he said "And it allows the same efficiency for the victim to be able to do stuff online."
The police chief reassures that online reporting will not take away the human interaction on each case.
"You can go online and initially start filing the paperwork for it. Once it's done -- immediately once you push submit it's going to get directly sent -- the pathway is going to go to a patrol supervisor who then can task that out to an officer," he said.
And just like prank calling the police can land you in criminal trouble, so can falsifying online reports.
"Making any kind of report like that to a law enforcement agency, if it's investigated and it comes out that it's a fictitious case, or maybe it's a friend having animus towards another person -- they want to go after this individual using the law as their leverage -- they will be filled on for tampering a government document," Tamez said.
Police Chief Eric Blanchard said Aransas Pass Police Department has utilized their custom online police reporting tool for over three years now.
He said with the holidays coming up, the online option is particularly useful.
"Sometimes people are out of town when they realize that something has happened, and they need to report it," Blanchard said. "We make it accommodating to them so they can report it through that online system. And that's where we are today, the system gets used regularly."