Blue, flashing lights and the screeching of sirens of passing police cars is enough to perk anyone's interest, especially when it's in their neighborhood.

Now, with a new internet application, Laurinburg police are making it easier to see where cruisers were going.

The city police department is among more than 700 law enforcement agencies to partner with CrimeReports, an online tool that shows where crimes were reported.

People can go to the website www.CrimeReports.com and type in the name of an affiliate agency or an address in an area that uses CrimeReports.

The site will take users to a map of the city or county that will show where crimes were reported in the municipality.

Sites are marked by word bubbles that have a color and a letter – an orange 'A' represents a violent crime, a purple 'P' represents a property crime, a light blue 'T' represents a theft, a dark blue 'B' represents a break-in and a green 'Q' represents a quality of life crime.

Police Chief John Evans said the website is a real boon for the police department and the community.

"People can see how safe their neighborhood really is," he said.

Laurinburg residents can look at the crimes around their home and see what they need need to do to keep themselves safe.

If their neighborhood has seen a rash of break-ins, Evans said as an example, perhaps it is time to get an updated security system.

The system will also help police in their efforts to fight crime as they will be able to see problem areas.

Looking at the map, he said he felt good about the current crime levels.

"I feel good about this rate," Evans said. "We're in pretty good shape."

The chief said the police are working to further reduce crime, but said the frequency and kinds of crime are a lot better than in other communities.

The website is kept up-to-date as new reports are uploaded to the site at the end of every day.

The information on the website includes the date, kind of crime, the street name and block number where the crime occurred, and the Originating Case Agency (OCA) number of the report.

Not all of the kinks have been worked out of the system, however.

The Laurinburg Police Department used the names of several businesses in the reports as the location instead of writing out the address, something CrimeReports does not recognize in its maps.

What this does is creates several areas on the map of Laurinburg with clusters of crimes that don't actually have an address.

Evans said the department is going to correct this internally as new reports are filed.