Every citizen is now a cyber sheriff
Every Sydney citizen is now a cyber sheriff. NSW Police are testing a new citizen-based crime-fighting technique in which all of us will be enlisted as ‘spies’ against criminals. Codenamed Project VIEW (Video Image Evidence on the Web) involves encouraging ordinary citizens to send in images of suspected criminal activity captured on mobile phones, digital cameras, or video recorders via a specifically dedicated police website. Under Project View, film taken by the public on mobile phones and video cameras will be used by police as evidence in prosecuting serious crime from dangerous speeding to bashings, sexual assault, and terrorism. This means that ordinary NSW citizens become the ‘eyes and ears’ of the NSW Police Force in its efforts to crack down on law-breakers. In essence, Project VIEW is a 21st century update of the highly successful CrimeStoppers program of the 1980s and 1990s. Bob Waites, Assistant Commissioner of NSW Police and Head of Operational Communications and Information Command, said increasingly sophisticated mobile phone cameras were becoming an important weapon in evidence-gathering. Already police have stepped up the heat on criminals by seeking access to ‘tens of thousands’ of closed circuit television cameras around the state. Let us know what you think. Should police use citizens’ pictures and video as evidence?
Sources: Every Sydney citizen is now a cyber sheriff, Daily Telegraph, 25/03/08, p.5, and Now we can all fight crime, Daily Telegraph, 25/03/08.
