There are many reasons that you may want to know what type and how many crimes are taking place in a certain neighborhood. Maybe it's a place you are thinking of moving to. Maybe it's a place your family spends time. Maybe you're just curious and want to waste hours playing on the interwebs. Either way, this new website is exactly what you've been looking for.

The Wichita Falls Police are now working with the LexisNexis Community Crime Map to help reduce crime, increase public safety, and show the community which areas crime activity tends to take place.

You can start interacting with the map at CommunityCrimeMap.com. Once there, put Wichita Falls as your location and then select which types of crimes you want displayed and over what time period. There's everything from assaults, to burglary, to traffic violations, to homicides.

There are also ways that you can set alerts for certain types of crimes so that you can stay aware. You can sign up for daily, weekly or monthly e-mails for any of the different type of crimes. Lets say that you are a store owner and want to be on the lookout if there's been a string of burglaries in your area, or a homeowner wanting to make sure that your neighborhood isn't seeing an increase in crime, this will help you stay up to date easily.

Check out the map for yourself at CommunityCrimeMap.com and see what trends and interesting things you may not have been aware of. It's the hope of both the WFPD and LexisNexis that this technology can keep the public aware of crime, builds trust with citizens, and improves communication between the public and law enforcement. By putting the same technology used by the police into the hands of the public, we can all work together to reduce crime.

More From Newstalk 1290