District of Columbia residents and on-line visitors can now use the Internet to get daily updates on crime in their communities, under a new partnership announced Tuesday between the Metropolitan Police Department and a Web site called crimereports.com.

Internet users sign up for a free subscription to the reporting service at www.crimereports.com. Subscribers can choose to receive updates about crime in a particular police district, or they can subscribe to all seven districts in the city. Then, five days a week, subscribers receive an e-mail containing preliminary information from the MPDC that summarizes the criminal incidents reported in that police district. Updates from previous days are archived on the crimereports.com Web site.

The crime information is organized by police service area (PSA) and includes the time and location the incident occurred, the type of crime involved and any additional information about how the crime occurred, what property was taken and descriptions of possible suspects, if any. Currently, the system includes the major ("Index") crimes of homicide, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, theft from auto, motor vehicle theft and arson. Future enhancements may include other, non-Index offenses as well.

"Through this new digital partnership, we are able to provide the community with the type of information it needs to be full and active partners in community policing," said Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey. "Using this information, residents can be more effective at identifying and understanding neighborhood problems, and they can be more proactive in helping our officers solve crimes," he said.

The Chief said that in addition to the daily crime updates, the MPDC plans to use the subscription service to send information about upcoming PSA and district events, community alerts, wanted offenders, news releases and other community policing information. Links to crimereports.com can be found on the Police Department's Web site: www.mpdc.org.

Crimereports.com is a D.C.-based Web site dedicated to "connecting law enforcement to the community," according to its founder Greg Whisenant, a local public relations professional who manages the site in his spare time. In addition to the MPDC, the service includes police in Arlington, Va., Salt Lake City, Utah, and Woodstock, N.Y.

For more information about the crimereports.com Web site, click on the image above or contact: