EVERYDAY citizens will be able to capture evidence and report hoons, vandals and traffic crashes through their smartphones under a WA Police plan.

Taxi fare evasions, noise complaints, neighbour disputes and fuel drives-offs are among the other non-urgent crimes users of the “PoliceDirect” app could instantly alert officers to from the palm of their hand.

Camera Icon A similar app is already available in Queensland Credit: News Corp Australia

The proposal is designed to free-up officers, with people able to report incidents with the click of a button, instead of telephoning police or attending a station.

As well as providing essential information, users will be able to upload photographs and video.

Other functions could include property registration, insurance claims, paying fines, appointment bookings and firearm licence applications.

The public would also be able to have “livechats” with the force and receive alerts and local crime statistics.

An identical mobile app in Queensland — Policelink — has saved its officers 260,000 operational hours a year.

The mobile application is being explored by WA Police as part of a broader “citizen centric” online reporting system.

PoliceDirect is likely to require a “mobile app development” akin to the Queensland model.

The WA system, the documents reveal, would also allow users to report intelligence to police via a “citizen digital media locker”.

The project could also see offenders “check-in” at special kiosks installed at stations. A WA Police spokesman said the creation of an app to report crime was a logical “next step”.

“WA Police already has online reporting options for many non-urgent matters and the move to a mobile phone-based app is seen as a natural next step in the process,” the spokesman said. “The project is still in the early stages and work is being done to identify those technologies that would provide the most benefit to public users and our WA Police. ”

The Queensland Policelink app has been in force since 2012 and cost $53,000.

As of January last year, 20,000 Queenslanders had downloaded the app, using it to make 3200 online crime reports the previous year.