Innovative policing app COPA is on course to clock up 10,000 users a little over a year after it was first launched.
Cleveland Online Policing App – or COPA – was the first app of its kind when it was launched on 26 September 2022.
The app, which allows the public to ask questions, get information, provide intelligence and report non-urgent incidents, has now been installed 7,859 times.
With an average of 400 downloads each month, that means the app is on course to reach 10,000 downloads by the end of 2023.
COPA has allowed members of the public to make a total of 2,847 submissions in the 11 months to the end of August. Submissions may include reports, direct questions or intelligence.
Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Steve Turner said: “Introducing the app was one of my top priorities when I was elected more than two years ago.
“The fact that COPA has been wholeheartedly embraced by the public shows there was a real appetite for a new, quick and easy way to get and provide information about incidents in the community.
“We are always looking at ways to improve COPA to make it easier to use and quicker to get information to the right people at the right time.
“However, I believe that the app has already demonstrated its worth. Not only has public take-up been amazing but Cleveland Police has found information supplied via COPA invaluable.
“Police have used reports, pictures and videos submitted via COPA to track nuisance bikers across Cleveland to clamp down on their antisocial behaviour as well as to help solve more serious crime such as burglaries.”
Signposting help
The app has also been vital in signposting users to other sites, which help in the fight against crime.
The police’s online reporting site for non-urgent incidents proved the most popular with a massive 2,723 – or 48.9 per cent – of total click-throughs from COPA.
At the same time, the number of non-urgent – or 101 – calls received by Cleveland Police has fallen.
Calls fell by 1.6% in the 12 months from July 2022 to June 2023, adding to a 4.9 per cent decrease over the past three years.
The second most popular click-through was Crimestoppers, which allows the public to report incidents and intelligence anonymously.
COPA collects no data – other than the number of click-throughs – on visitors going to the Crimestoppers’ site.
For first five months of this year, the number of reports in Cleveland to Crimestoppers rose by 16.8 per cent on the same period last year.
Download COPA NOW!