WRIGLEYVILLE — The company behind the Chicago Police Department's online reporting system said it fixed a glitch after a Wrigleyville blog caught the error.
On Wednesday, the anonymously run Crime in Wrigleyville + Boystown blog reported an issue when a reader attempted to file a police report for a package theft. Some addresses in the system prompted an error message.
"The address you have entered does not appear to be in our jurisdiction. Please check the address and enter a valid one or contact us via telephone at 312-744-4000," it read.
The blog suggested the inability to file reports could deter victims from completing the process by phone.
"Chicago police executives are bragging about an 8 percent reduction in crime this year ... But part of the crime 'reduction' is almost certainly the result of the hurdles that citizens must jump to simply report an incident," it wrote, including a shrinking police force among the hurdles.
When DNAinfo Chicago examined the site, some addresses — such as Wrigley Field's 1060 W. Addison St. — worked, but only when a drop-down menu matched the street name.
Others — many on Michigan Avenue, but also on smaller streets like Spaulding Avenue in Logan Square — did not.
The department reached out to the system provider, Copslogic, to check the address verification process, spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Wednesday.
Once they were alerted, the issue was resolved "right away," said a Copslogic spokeswoman. DNAinfo Chicago confirmed that previously nixed addresses worked as of Wednesday evening.
Copslogic provides online citizen incident reporting for 450 police agencies in the country. LexisNexis purchased the company in August 2014, touting its "significant time savings and efficiencies" for cash-strapped departments.
Each department can tailor the system to its needs, allowing reports of varying levels of non-violent crime.
The Chicago Police Department has used Copslogic since 2010, according to its website. While Chicago is the largest city to use the service, agencies all sizes do, too, from Houston, Texas, to Highland Park, Illinois.
Over the past year, Chicago residents filed 2,666 reports through the Copslogic system, the company said.
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