The Vancouver Police Department has activated an online crime map that charts local crimes by officers’ reports.

The system takes geographical data from police reports, then maps them out with basic information about the incident, including the nature of the reported crime, the type of location, block-level address and date and time.

The department had a similar mapping system, now defunct, several years ago. Now that the police department’s new records management division is operating, staff could start integrating police report information with the mapping software, department spokeswoman Kim Kapp said.

“It’s sort of a long-term process to get this new records management system refined so it could actually work well with a mapping program,” she said.

The map is available at the department’s website, www.vanpolice.org.