BELL COUNTY, Texas — Bell County's new C.R.I.M.E.S. program gives local police officers and emergency personnel a new way to fight crime.
"It really takes a community to fight crime and fight it well," Bell County Sheriff Eddy Lange said. "This is just another step in getting the community involved in a way that wasn't there before."
Bell County C.R.I.M.E.S., which stands for Community Related Information Management Exchange System, is a Virtual Neighborhood Watch that relies on an online reporting system.
Sheriff Lange said the information logged into the system is kept in a data base and is then used to help solve various crimes in the community.
The program relies heavily on what people see and is aimed, officials said, at community members to see something and say something. If there's an emergency, however, you are still asked to call 9-1-1.
Bruce Moran, who created the program, said it's a message to criminals that they can't hide.
"Watch out, because it's not going to have to be a car with headlights and police written down the side," Moran said. "There's a lot of people watching now. The Sheriff's Department in Bell County has just expanded by thousands."
Sheriff Lange said he was hired to protect the citizens of Bell County and this is a tool that will help do so.
"It's going to make it a little but more difficult for the criminals to accomplish their tasks," he said.
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