In rapid response to the Coronavirus public health crisis, over the weekend the Elmwood Park Police Department quickly implemented a new online reporting system to help keep their officers, and the public, safer.
Called the Citizen Online Reporting System ("CORES"), the new web portal at www.elmwoodparkpd.com gives residents the ability to do online filing of certain criminal incident reports, property check requests, and alarm system registrations.
"With the recent outbreak of COVID-19 and its rapid spread, especially in Bergen County where most of the cases in the state are being reported, we felt the need to explore the possibility of allowing our residents to make certain non-serious police reports online," said Elmwood Chief of Police and Borough Administrator Michael Foligno. "With social distancing being one of the most recommended precautions to take to help stop the spread of the virus, we felt that even if we could decrease the number of police/citizen interaction by a small amount, we would be protecting our officers as well as our residents."
The CORES system inputs residents’ reports into a server database, delivers an email with an attached PDF of the report to the Police Department, and emails a copy of the PDF report back to the resident for their records.
The system was created and installed over the weekend by the Borough's website company, AirGov, which operates websites and performs public information services for local municipalities and government agencies.
It is anticipated that the CORES system will be expanded in the near future to include additional types of online reporting for municipalities and police departments.
Police Chief Foligno added, "We are the first to step up and the last to step down during a crisis or emergency. If we can reduce our interactions without sacrificing our services, I think everybody wins."