The Albany Police Department is taking a step into the 21st century to try to improve community relations. A new website from the APD shares crime data with the public.

The new interactive site is now live. It lets people search for information like arrests, by neighborhood, the number of reported crimes, officers' use of force or traffic citations.

Some community leaders say this isn't the single answer to the violence in the community, but it is a step in the right direction. Dr. Alice Green says the website provides transparency and accountabilty for the department.

"We can hold them accountable for things that they may be doing or affecting the community in a negative way or a positive way," Green said.

Acting Albany Police Chief Robert Sears says it's also a way to build more trust and transparency with the community. He wants the public to use the information that's there, but Dr. Green says it's important to look at the data as statistics.

"You might find that more arrests are taking place in a particular area, but that doesn't mean that's more crime in that area, but there might be more arrests," Dr. Green said.

The police department hopes the website will be used as a building block for transparency with the community.

"As far as boots on the ground out on the street, I don't know how much help it's going to be, but from a conceptual and relationship building standpoint, people will understand what we're doing every day and that we're not trying to hide anything," Sears said.