Mark Elliott, Northfield Police Chief says his department has a new community crime map.  Elliott says, "It's something a lot of different agencies are using. People can view crime reports on a map and see what's going on in their neighborhood."

Elliott asked Professional Pride Realty owner Pete Mergens if he could use the information.  Pete's reply, "I'm really excited to hear about that Mark.  It's something that actually comes up quite often when we're with customers and clients.  Northfield is pretty consistent with where the homes are located.  There might be two or three homes on the east side or two or three homes on the west side.  People might ask what's the crime like here and often times it puts me in a difficult position because I can't really, without having factual data, can't give them my opinion.  To not have that information is complicated for a realtor.  We also can't direct people to look in a certain area."

Mergens adds, "This allows them to have a place to go to, so I'm really excited to hear about that and I will be taking advantage of that website."

Elliott says the department has a link to the site on their website also.

Elliott explained, "The map will show, right on the map where different crimes are reported."  (There is a couple day delay)  "The default when you go to that page is the part one crimes which are your more serious crimes.  Which Northfield has very few of.  There are a lot of searchable options on there.  By date range, the type of crime you want to look for or you can select all and it will show all of them on there."

This will take you to the LexisNexis Community Crime Map.

Rice County, Dakota County, Steele County are also available on the map along with communities listed below.

  • Apple Valley
  • Burnsville
  • Faribault
  • Farmington
  • Eagan
  • Elko/New Market
  • Lakeville
  • New Prague
  • Owatonna
  • Rosemount
  • Savage
  • Shakopee
  • Prior Lake

The Northfield Police Chief also discussed their efforts to obtain body cameras.  He told listeners about the hope for community input into some of the department policies they are developing. Listen to the entire interview in the player below:

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