The Middletown Township Police Department is working to make things a bit easier for the public.
The next step in the department’s efforts to increase public outreach went online Tuesday. The new addition in the Municipal Complex is a kiosk at the police station capable of filing incident reports and Right to Know requests.
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The kiosk began as an idea for Middletown when Sgt. Matt Kroiss saw a news story about a similar kiosk in Evesham Township, New Jersey. There, Lt. Joseph Friel was behind the public service kiosk station was pioneered several years earlier in another New Jersey community. Friel was in contact with Middletown officials as they set up their kiosk.
According to Kroiss, Middletown is the first Bucks County department to offer the kiosk services.
“Once word gets out, we have a feeling that this is going to be a popular choice,” he said.
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In addition to providing services such as requesting home checks for vacations and adding residents to the no solicitation lists, the kiosk can give residents information on a number of programs such as the unused drug drop-off boxes, a police frequently asked questions and will display a list of wanted persons.
The kiosk also represents a move towards efficiency in Middletown. Now, residents do not need to wait for an officer to come in off of the street to make a report although that is still an option.
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The unassuming kiosk is simply an iPad Pro mounted on a Middletown-branded stand.
According to Kroiss, this new method of interacting with police may also improve people’s attitude about reporting crime. With the kiosk, there is no need to sit down with an officer or for residents to feel like they’re taking up a patrol officer’s time. Instead, a quick stop to the police station will let residents file a complaint as quickly as they can fill out an electronic form. If filing a report is all they need to do, they can even do it online from a computer.
In the few hours between the system going live and Kroiss talking to LevittownNow.com, the township had already fielded a few electronic police reports. With the goal of furthering police outreach, Kroiss believes the kiosk will help fulfill that mission.
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The funding for the project came out of the police budget, officials said.
