Arlington police launch crime tracking platform with local tech company

Published 1:30 am Saturday, September 19, 2026

EVERETT — There’s an enduring question circulating in Facebook groups and community forums across the county: “What were those sirens?”

Residents in the city of Arlington have a new tool to get a timely answer.

The Arlington Police Department is partnering with Civic Informer, an upstart, local technology company, to deliver easily digestible crime data on a daily basis.

Launched earlier this month, the public safety information platform allows the Arlington community to see why exactly police were on their street. Each morning, subscribers receive an emailed briefing, detailing the calls for service, incident reports and number of arrests made by Arlington police on the previous day.

Police Chief Jonathan Ventura told The Daily Herald he’d been eyeing a tool like this to keep the community in-the-know for a decade.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t get (someone asking), ‘There’s three cop cars in this neighborhood, anybody know what’s going on?’” Ventura said. “This way, the next morning, you can go back and actually see, pretty accurately, what exactly it was and get rid of that mystery.”

That’s what the Bellingham-based developers of Civic Informer had in mind when they first debuted the platform earlier this year.

“Our mission really is to provide residents with a transparent, 10,000-foot view of public safety in relatively real time,” said Evan Steinhilb, the CEO and co-founder. “It’s about really leaning into what we wanted as residents, which is that responsive answer to ‘What were those sirens going down my street? Is downtown actually more active than other places in town? Is my neighborhood more active or less active in comparison?’”

The police department provides the calls-for-service records straight from the 911 center, Ventura said. That information is then organized by time, place and category to present a larger picture of trends and patterns across the community.

Ventura said his officers have no role in delivering the data, which he said saves time and resources, while also hopefully relieving concerns about data manipulation.

“Here, if you want to know, ‘What’s going on in this neighborhood?’” Ventura said. “Well, log on. You can see for yourself. We’re not trying to hide anything.”

The platform does protect privacy by limiting call information to block numbers, not specific addresses. People aren’t named, any details are kept to age and gender, the chief said.

All the data is public information, but it isn’t always easy to access or comprehend.

“People have an interest, but they can’t just process a big data dump,” Ventura said.

Civic Informer tracks the details over time, comparing city and neighborhood call volume to help residents see what is typical for their area. The company makes its methodology public to answer any questions about what’s being presented.

“We don’t highlight anything as good or bad, or put any individual incident or individuals themselves on a pedestal,” Steinhelb said. “It’s about the quantified picture of the statistic in a way that residents can understand.”

Arlington is the second city to sign an official data sharing agreement with Civic Informer, along with Bellingham. The platform also details emergency activity in the city of San Francisco through publically available data feeds.

As a pilot partner, the police department is receiving the service at a reduced cost while both sides seek feedback for how to improve the site.

Ventura said it’s an opportunity to give Arlington residents a clearer picture of what their taxpayer money is being used for, from there, they get to decide what the numbers mean for their city and their safety.

“Data is always up to some interpretation,” Ventura said “But the calls that come in are the calls that come in. How many calls we go to, that’s the number that doesn’t change. The type of call, that’s something that doesn’t necessarily change.

“… We don’t touch this data. Sometimes it’s good, bad, ugly or indifferent. I have no control over it. We do the best we can with the resources that we have.”

Find the interactive map of recent Arlington police activity and subscribe to daily email briefings at civicinformer.com/arlington.

Ian Davis-Leonard: 425-339-3097; ian.davis-leonard@heraldnet.com