Using the website crimereports.com, Clanton residents can now chart crimes, traffic accidents, the location of sex offenders and more.

Clanton police announced the partnership between the department and CrimeReports, creators of the National Crime Map, this week.

“Providing reliable, timely information to our citizens is one of our top priorities,” said Police Chief Brian Stilwell. “And partnering with CrimeReports gives us the ability to keep the public informed on a regular basis as to what is going on in the community.”

By visiting the website, users can search various incidents and see a map of where they occurred down to the street block. A few things that can be searched and mapped include homicides, robberies, thefts, assaults, sexual offenses, traffic accidents and more.

The information, which is loaded every 24 hours, can be searched by various dates and goes back six months, into October 2010.

The crime map can be accessed online through the website or through the CrimeReports iPhone app, available for free in the Apple iTunes store. People can also sign up for email alerts, which are customizable by location and incident type.

Crime tips can also be submitted to police via the website too.

“Information is power,” Sgt. Neil Fetner said. “And we hope that giving the community this information will help prevent crime in their neighborhoods.”

More than a thousand police departments across the country use the software. People can access the Clanton crime map and sign up for daily, weekly or monthly email crime alerts at crimereports.com or clanton.al.us/city_police.php.