LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- As crime reports from around Louisville are submitted to police, many of them are mapped a special online Community Crime Map.
Hundreds of markers note the locations of crime scenes for everything from burglaries to assaults.
But there are blank spots on the map. Cities like Shively, Jeffersontown and St. Matthews don't use the system.
For years St. Matthews used the same crime mapping system as the Louisville Metro Police Department, but about six months ago they stopped -- and some residents say that decision has made it more difficult for them to know about what's happening on their streets.
Fred White is a resident of St. Matthews who owns a business in Jeffersontown.
"We've got a 'reach alert' system in St. Matthews," he said. "You know right away if there's going to be a movie in Brown Park. You know right away if that movie has been canceled. You don't know if there's been a shooting at Jamestown."
He says it's no better when he's at work.
"I don't know if anything is going on here in J-Town either."
Not having a crime mapping system in either area is something he says is putting people, like him, at risk.
"I've had big air conditioning units cut out and I learned later that was something going on," he said.
Barry Wilkerson, chief of the St. Matthews Police Department, says he has talked with White and understands his concerns. But, his department can't continue to use the same mapping system.
"We didn't want to leave," he said. "It was a situation where LMPD went in a different direction and we couldn't piggyback off that."
But Wilkerson says a new system is set to roll out within the next month.
"We will actually have our own crime mapping off our own webpage now," he said. "We're using the same company so it's going to coincide. It will even show -- if you open the map -- it will show the surrounding crime around St. Matthews."
Wilkerson says he wants to assure residents like White that he does want the community to be up-to-date on crime stats in the area.
"I definitely don't want to hide it because our crime has been lower and that's a good thing. We hope to continue that trend obviously," he said.
Within the past few weeks, police in Jeffersontown say their department has started looking into how it could start its own online mapping system as well.
Major Brian Foreman of the Jeffersontown Police Department says the process is "in its early stages" and a timeframe for when a new system could be available isn't yet known.
"It would not only benefit us to kind of be able to map and track where things are happening, but then we could also have that available to the public if they wanted to see it, and also other law enforcement agencies," said Foreman.
The Shively Police Department posts yearly stats on its website. To see how 2022 compared to previous data, click here.
Moving forward, spokesperson says command staff are also discussing ways to release a monthly crime map to help make the information easier to visualize for the public.
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