Shop-a-yob with your mobile in Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester Police have launched an online intelligence reporting form for its citizens to ‘shop a yob’. Using this form you can submit a crime report and, crucially, you can attached photos and videos too. (Here’s the form link)

With the vast majority of people in the country carrying mobile handsets with decent camera phones that offer video recording too, it’s becoming more and more likely that people with these devices will witness and record crimes (like the person who caught a smash-and-grab on their mobile a while back)

Deborah Haile at The Manchester Evening News has an overview of the new offering:

POLICE are asking people to shop-a-yob by snapping pictures or video footage on their mobile phones and sending the footage to the police.

There were more than 76,000 reports of criminal damage in Greater Manchester last year costing a staggering £66.3m.

Now they have set up an “online intelligence reporting form” through the GMP website for witnesses to pass on evidence as attacks happen.

Police say it reflects the “reality” that people with camera phones often record incidents when they happen. The footage could be used as evidence in possible court cases.

I think this is an excellent idea. My only wish is that it was all a bit more.. organised and easy. It’s quite a hassle, still, for a lot of people getting images and videos from their phone to their computer. It’d be rather neat if you could ShoZu your video directly to the local Police’s control room (and have ShoZu send your name, phone number and whatnot along with the video).

If you’d like to see what some of the ‘yobs’ in Manchester have been up to recently, here’s a link to a video by the Manchester Evening News featuring CCTV coverage of idiots knocking in phonebox windows and whatnot.