By Mary O’KEEFE

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. (LASD) has created a new mobile app to act as a bridge between the department and the community.

“It includes [information about] career opportunities, and people can sign up for crime alerts and [there is] a section where people can submit an anonymous tip,” said Dep. Alex Covian, community deputy at the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station.

The features also include a way for users to contact the LASD 24/7 for non-emergency issues, an event calendar and crime maps that link to other county departments. It will also allow people to file reports about certain types of crimes.

“You can submit reports for petty theft crimes,” Covian added.

He said although reporting petty thefts is still something the deputies want to respond to because it may be part of other crimes in the area, there are some who do not want to come to the station or have concerns about having a patrol vehicle come to their neighborhood. All crime reported in the area goes through a crime analyst who works with the detective department and maps out reported incidents.

“The analysts look at trends, they will look to see if there are certain hours that [specific] crimes are occurring,” Covian said.

That information is then shared with local stations.

The application can be downloaded by going to www.lasdapp.com or, in the Apple or Android app stores, search Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.