Introducing Civic Informer in Monmouth, Oregon

Monday brings a new way to keep up with Monmouth. We've partnered with Monmouth Police Department to deliver a weekly view of local police activity, alongside updates written by the department itself.

Our Monmouth edition opened on September 25, and we sent the first subscriber briefing on September 28. It's our first Oregon community, bringing Civic Informer's reports, interactive map and free email to residents, students and businesses in Monmouth.

The city introduced the partnership on September 30. Since then, we've been working with the department to make the weekly briefing a useful place to find both police activity and community information.

Your week in Monmouth, in one place

Each week, we turn records supplied by Monmouth Police Department into a report you can explore by day, category, location and hour. You can see how activity compares with the previous week, open the map, or read individual entries in the event log.

The reports also show how events started: through 911, by phone or through officers' work in the field. That gives the weekly total more context. An area check, a phone report and an emergency response all reflect police work, even though they mean different things for the community.

We label these records as events because they describe calls for service, not a count of crimes. Map locations are approximate, allowing readers to explore activity without displaying exact residential addresses.

You can see the format in our October 5–11 report, or browse the weekly archive. The free Monday email brings the week's summary to you, with links to explore further.

Built with the department's voice

One of the things we're most pleased to see in Monmouth is how the department is using the briefing to speak directly to the community.

Its October 5 update invited readers to Coffee with a Cop on October 7. The following week's edition shared information about focused traffic enforcement. Ahead of Halloween, the October 26 email included pedestrian-safety tips for families.

Department staff also write summaries of selected notable events. By October 26, we'd delivered 12 of those summaries across four weekly editions, alongside the activity figures. The department reviews each weekly email before it goes out; we handle the publishing and delivery.

This is the kind of local resource we want to help agencies build: clear reporting, practical updates and a dependable way to reach people who want to hear from them.

Our first month in Monmouth

Thank you to Monmouth Police Department for bringing its records, updates and local knowledge to the partnership, and to the readers helping us introduce Civic Informer to Oregon.

Visit Civic Informer Monmouth and subscribe to the free Monday email.

If your department is looking for a regular way to share its work, see how we help law enforcement agencies.