Crime categories and follow-up questions
When you report a tip, you pick the category that’s closest to what you saw or know. That choice decides which follow-up questions come next, and you can leave any of them blank.
Pick the closest category
Section titled “Pick the closest category”You’ll see seven broad options first: Harm to a person, A weapon or a threat, Someone is missing or in danger, Drugs, Property crime, Fraud or a scam, and Something else. Pick whichever is closest to what you’re reporting. It doesn’t need to be an exact match.
Choosing one of these opens a narrower list. Under Harm to a person, for example, you might choose Domestic violence, Sexual assault, or Assault or fight. Every list has a “something else in this category” option, in case none of the choices fit exactly, and Something else is there at the top level too.
The names you see are the display labels. Any internal codes behind them stay internal. They’re never shown to you.
The follow-up questions match your category
Section titled “The follow-up questions match your category”After you pick a category, you’re asked a short set of extra questions built around it. A report about an assault might ask whether a weapon or a vehicle was involved. A report about a missing person asks about timing instead. A report about fraud asks something different again. Each question is there because the answer gives investigators something concrete to act on.
You can skip anything you don’t know
Section titled “You can skip anything you don’t know”None of the follow-up questions are required. Answer what you’re sure of, and leave the rest blank. A partial answer still helps, and a guess does not.
The questions don’t ask who you are
Section titled “The questions don’t ask who you are”The follow-up questions ask about the situation, not about you. They never ask your name, where you live, or how you’re connected to what’s happening. The set of questions for each category is fixed and reviewed before it’s used, and no category adds a question meant to identify you.
Related
Section titled “Related”If someone is in immediate danger, call emergency services first.