Chico >> The Chico Police Department will soon be a swipe and tap away.

Police have announced they will roll out a smartphone application in the next few weeks that will allow the public to report crimes, view a live crime map, register bicycles and more.

“It’s really going to create a direct conduit for (the public) to communicate with the Police Department,” Sgt. Scott Zuschin said at a press conference Monday at the Police Department.

The app, which was described as a one-stop shop where people could submit anonymous tips, find phone numbers and engage with police, remains in development and will be available as a free download on Apple and Android devices in a “few weeks,” Zuschin said.

The app, which should be searchable under “Chico Police Department” when it’s released, is the latest example of Chico police embracing technology and social media in an effort open more lines of communication with the city’s residents.

The Police Department also will become active on the website Nextdoor, which promotes interaction between neighbors and their surrounding neighborhoods in a way that resembles a neighborhood watch group, Zuschin said.

He added that the Police Department has found that Nextdoor, which is also available as a mobile app, has gained popularity in Chico. Police, in their partnership with the platform, will be able to glean information and track crimes and other safety issues reported by users throughout the city.

“That will assist us in getting ahead of problems and communicating directly with neighborhoods that are having issues,” Zuschin said.

Target Team

The Police Department’s upcoming app, use of Nextdoor and growing social media presence will largely be overseen by its Target Team, which was reintroduced to the public Monday.

Zuschin, a 10-year veteran of the Chico Police Department, has been chosen to lead the unit, which comprises Zuschin, officers Jeff Durkin and Paul Ratto, and community outreach officer Ed Nelson.

Nelson will work “with our social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, managing our app and information that comes through there,” Zuschin said.

Further, the Target Team will be tasked with working on “comprehensive and creative solutions to stubborn crime problems,” Police Chief Mike O’Brien said.

“Target is going to be a unit that will help further our community oriented policing model and specifically address what I have coined ‘quality-of-life’ crime,” O’Brien said. “That is crime where it affects people where they live, work, shop and recreate.”

O’Brien said by the end of December two more officers will be added to the Target Team, and it’s planned to have six police officers and a sergeant on the team by next September.

Initially, O’Brien said, because the outfit will be spread thin, police will have to “pick the worst problems in this community, address those and then move on to the next one.”

O’Brien said the Target Team has focused on criminal activity that has been observed at Bidwell Park and has spilled over to areas such as Park Plaza on Mangrove Avenue.

“There’s been accosting of some of our park staff, citizens have felt unsafe, and some of that element has moved over to the Mangrove plaza shopping area and the CARD Center,” he said. “It really has to do with, again, the quality-of-life problem I mentioned earlier.”

O’Brien pointed to needing a collaborative approach to policing “now more than ever.” He noted relationships police have built with service providers like the Jesus Center, Torres Community Shelter, Chico Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Chico Business Association, as well as behavioral health providers.

Zuschin said police have also been identifying people who “take up a lot of police resources, meaning they are responsible for no less than maybe 50 to 100 calls for service individually within the last year.”

He added: “What that tells me is that arrests and police contact aren’t solving the problem. There’s other issues there. We are working collaboratively … to get these people to a place where we can identify what their needs are and get them the assistance that will help them make their lives better.”

The Target Team would also largely enforce a city law that bans storing camping and other personal property in designated public spaces.

The City Council on Sept. 15 approved the first reading of an ordinance that would make the storage of personal property, including camping equipment, in such public spaces as city parks, waterways and streets punishable as an infraction or misdemeanor, meaning officers could arrest and transport alleged offenders to jail.

The ordinance, approved by a 6-1 vote, was recommended by city staff in part because the city’s waterways have attracted a “more permanent transient population,” according to a staff report.

“Some of these individuals have chosen to set up ‘camps’ in the city’s waterways,” according to the report. “Problems with garbage and human waste have been identified in these sites, posing significant health and safety risk to the people inhabiting these areas.”

The ordinance, which also would make it illegal to allow dogs to run “at large” in the area of city hall, in addition to other rules like possessing glass containers or needles in that area, was brought about by public demand and to stop the destruction of public spaces, city officials have said.

Police have said the goal is not to make arrests, but to achieve compliance.

The ordinance, however, also has been criticized by some as a law that criminalizes homelessness.

O’Brien said the ordinance better balances the relationship between accountability and compassion.

“We don’t want a community that is solely accountable, meaning only holding people accountable for things, without that key piece of compassion,” he said. “You must have both, and I think what has happened is compassion has — to some degree — outraced our accountability piece in this community.”

The end result, O’Brien added, “is what we’ve seen around town in our parks, in our neighborhoods, in our downtown and elsewhere.”

O’Brien said the issues in Chico are not unique to the city.

“It is affecting every California community to some degree or another,” he said. “And it is the result of prison realignment, the effects of Prop. 47, which have essentially rendered our drug courts ineffective because it’s taken away the component of either jail or rehabilitation.”

Proposition 47 was approved by California voters last November and has reduced some “non-serious, non-violent” crimes, such as petty theft and drug possession, from felonies to misdemeanors, according to the law.