Chapel Hill Police Debut New Web Site

These services became possible Monday when the Chapel Hill Police Department launched its first Web site, http://www.chpd.us.

The Web site will facilitate an exchange of information between the police and Chapel Hill residents, said police spokeswoman Jane Cousins.

"The main purpose of the Web site is to give the police another avenue to disseminate and receive information," she said.

Cousins said the Web site will be most useful to residents, people seeking employment with the department, students looking for information and prospective residents researching crime statistics. She said that portions of the Web site are available in Spanish and that the department hopes to complete the translation.

Information Services Technician Mary Powell and Officer Bryan Walker have been working on the site since last October.

"From concept to launch it was about a year," Walker said. "But it's something that had been talked about for a while."

Walker said the Chapel Hill Town Hall hosts the department's Web space so the only cost involved was the registration of the site's name. The price for three years of registration was about $140, he said.

Walker said he, Powell and Cousins will continue to update the Web site.

"It's going to be a dynamic site," Walker said. "Every section of the Web site is going to grow."

Walker, who proposed the idea, and Powell had prior experience working with Web sites.

Walker created the Web site for the Parkwood Volunteer Fire Department he volunteered with several years ago, and Powell had previously set up informal Web sites for her family.

Walker said he has been dividing his time between patrol duties and Internet technology for the past year.

Powell said the site will expedite communication between the police department and citizens.

"We think it will save time," she said. "You can find out so much before calling or making any special trips."

Powell said long-range goals for the site include allowing residents to file and access police reports and to view crime videos online.

She said the other main purpose of the Web site is recruiting, as visitors of www.chpd.us can download applications to work for the Chapel Hill police.

Besides its emphasis on recruitment, Powell said the Web site is distinct from other police department sites she has seen. "I wouldn't say it's similar to any," she said. "We wanted to make it a personal site."

The site only has been up since Monday, but Powell said it's already receiving traffic. "I actually had some feedback from our Frequently Asked Questions (Tuesday) morning. People are looking."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.