RAIDS stands for Regional Analysis & Information Data Sharing.

The raidsonline.com website allows a user to select an address, a range of dates and the type of crimes sought. The site shows serious crimes, such as assaults, robberies and burglaries, that have been submitted by officers in their reports, as well as other crimes.

For instance, a person interested in crimes so far this month near 171 Park St., the address for the Lewiston Police Department, could see that within a half-mile radius, there was an arson to a government building at 7:45 a.m. on April 2, a theft from a car on April 11 and a theft from a home just before midnight on April 9.

The addresses listed for the events are not precise, so users cannot identify crime victims from an address where an incident happened, said the Lewiston police crime analyst, Andrew Robitaille.

The software also is designed to show crime locations on a street map or a satellite map. A separate function shows the frequency of crimes for the given period, the time of day when those crimes occurred and the days of the week.

The software also allows residents to sign up for daily, weekly or monthly crime updates for their areas.