Responding to what was described as overwhelming community responses, the Honolulu Police Department said Tuesday that it has added more offenses, including violent ones, to its online crime mapping site.

The change, which triples to 15 the overall categories shown on the map, was applauded by neighborhood board members, City Council members and others.

“Good for them,” said attorney Rich Turbin, chairman of the Waialae-Kahala Neighborhood Board, about HPD’s action. “I think it’s about time.”

HPD made the change in the wake of recent Honolulu Star-Advertiser stories revealing that the department was out of step with most police agencies nationally. The newspaper disclosed last month that HPD was the only department among more than 150 the Star-Advertiser checked across the country that did not include violent crimes on its online maps.

Prior to the change, HPD included only five of the 15 categories that its vendor tracks, limiting the plotting to mostly nonviolent property crimes. When the department launched its mapping site in 2010, those were the crimes that neighborhood boards largely were interested in, according to HPD.

But since the Star-Advertiser’s stories, police started contacting neighborhood groups and others to get feedback on possible changes to the site. HPD officials told a City Council committee Tuesday that the response was overwhelming: People wanted more crimes added.

“It was never HPD’s intent to be deceptive or withhold information from the community,” Assistant Chief Willam Axt told the Committee on Public Health, Safety and Welfare. “We want to be as transparent as possible.”

The 10 categories added to the mapping feature include murders, robberies, assaults, sex crimes, arson, and drug and weapon offenses. Domestic-violence incidents are not included because of concerns about a victim’s privacy, police said.

The mapping feature does not identify victims, but if the plotting pin is placed on a small street with few homes, that could heighten privacy concerns, especially if neighbors saw police responding at a residence.

The pins show the general area — not specific addresses — where the offenses were reported to police, not necessarily where they occurred. The location is listed by street block, intersection or incomplete address, and the accompanying information includes the time and date the crime was reported.

For certain offenses, such as home burglaries, the crime scene typically is the same as where police are summoned. But for others, police might be called to a location where the victim ended up, such as a hospital, not where the crime happened.

Using HPD’s interactive map (bit.ly/1bxPWHY), people can search for any of 15 types of crimes reported within the past six months and within 2 miles of a specific Oahu address. Users also can arrange to have digital alerts automatically sent to them when crimes are reported near their homes.

Nanci Kreidman, chief executive of the Domestic Violence Action Center, was pleased that police are keeping domestic-violence offenses off the map.

“That’s a good approach,” she said, adding that victims must retain the ability to decide whether to disclose any information to relatives, an employer or others.

While City Council member Kymberly Pine told Axt and Randy Macadangdang, another HPD assistant chief at Tuesday’s meeting, that she was thrilled by the mapping change, she raised concerns about including sex assaults.

She said she was worried that HPD rushed to make the change without considering all the ramifications, and urged the department to continue evaluating that.

Axt said HPD always has been concerned about providing information that might compromise a victim’s identity or discourage someone from reporting a sex assault. He said the department is working with its mapping vendor to see whether the general location of the offense, rather than where it’s reported, can be displayed.

The Star-Advertiser could not reach representatives from the Sex Abuse Treatment Center and the Hawaii Coalition Against Sexual Assault for comment.

Axt told the committee that community members overwhelmingly told the department that they wanted information on the mapping site that they were legally entitled to get.

Pine, who represents the Leeward area stretching from Ewa to Makaha, questioned why HPD has not provided neighborhood boards in her district with violent-crime statistics despite repeated requests for such information. She said she has inquired about that since her first year on the Council in 2012.

“That information should have been provided,” Axt replied.

He said including the additional crimes on the mapping site did not result in any cost increase to the department. HPD pays about $1,200 per year to its vendor, Omega Group.

He also said the department is exploring other ways to improve the site, including looking at what additional services other companies offer.

“We want to see how we can do a better job,” Axt said.