More B.C. residents are now able to report minor theft online

Residents of Kamloops, Prince George, and Nanaimo, B.C., have a new and simple way to report crime.

B.C.RCMP is expanding its online crime reporting service to the three cities, after starting its pilot in Surrey, Richmond, Kelowna, and Ridge Meadows earlier this year.

It's only available for certain types of crimes generally, property crime worth less than $5,000, where there are no witnessesand no known suspects.

Since police don't generally go out to investigate those crimes, they say they don't need to have a phone conversation with the victim. By having the reporting done online, staff have time to focus on other work.

Const. Gary O'Brien says that's key.

"We would love to go to every call, we really would, because the public loves having a police officer dealing with a situation they have. Unfortunately, [we] can't," says O'Brien, who speaks for Nanaimo RCMP.

He says they're not about to get funding for more police officers, but technology like online reporting can help them make the best use of the officers they have.

Vancouver and Victoria police already use online reporting. Victoria Const. Matt Rutherford thinks it can actually encourage some people to report crimes.

"We see a lot of talk from people online, of people being victimized by theft from vehicles, or fraud, and they feel that they don't want to bother the policeor call the non-emergency line," he says.

Even though police don't investigate many of these thefts, they say the reports are valuable: it means they can follow up if they find stolen goods, and can also track crime which helps them know where to send patrols, for example, or when to set up a bait car.

For the victims, the report is often required to make an insurance claim.

Online reporting launches Wednesday in Kamloops and Prince George, and will be available in Nanaimo in the first week of December. It's also expected to come to Mission, B.C., but there is no launch date yet.