Motorola Solutions and the Chicago Police Department (CPD) announced TipSubmit, a new online tool for reporting crimes. The platform was officially unveiled in late April and is now fully operational, allowing users to report crimes in the Chicago metropolitan area. The tool was designed as a direct successor to the TXT2TIP, an older system used by the CPD that has been discontinued as of this writing. TipSubmit builds on the functionality of its predecessor by providing users with a robust framework for reporting all types of crimes, from narcotic offenses and arson to theft and crimes that are violent in nature. All users of the new system are only required to select the type of crime and the location where it occurred, as well as the date and the (approximate) time when the transgression happened. Following that procedure, witnesses and other people looking to use the Motorola Solutions-made platform are able to describe the crime in their own words, as well as name suspects and vehicles that are connected to the incident.
TipSubmit also supports multimedia files that users are able to attach to their reports, while all tipsters can always choose to follow up on their initial reports. Finally, everyone who submits a tip to the CPD can choose to do so anonymously. The newly introduced system also features a Crime Map that shows crime reports in the United States in real time. The interactive map introduced by Motorola Solutions several months ago doesn’t reveal many details about reports for obvious reasons, though users are still able to view the location and the nature of each individual report. TipSubmit was designed for both desktop and mobile browsers, so while the service doesn’t have an official Android app, it can still be easily used on smartphones.
While the Motorola Solutions-made system is rather versatile in nature, it still wasn’t meant to serve as an alternative for contacting emergency services. The main reporting interface of TipSubmit clearly states that all users should call 911 in case they’re looking to report an emergency, a sentiment that was recently echoed by Jonathan Lewin, head of the CPD’s Technology Services bureau. Following a testing period in Chicago, TipSubmit is expected to roll out to more U.S. cities in the near future.