74 21 Aug - 3 Sept 2019 Do you agree? Let us know [email protected]
been recovered. But there’s also a
serious risk that amateur sleuths will
make amateur mistakes – or worse.
When photos of th e alle ged bike thieves
were posted on Facebook, several
differen t names were suggested in the
public comments – not all of whom
could have been guilty of th e crim e they
were accused of committing.
When sightings of th e bike were
posted, other members of th e group
actually went out into the streets in
search of th e
miscreants. “I’ve
covered some
groundlooking for
them but found
nothing,” reported
one have-a-go hero.
But there were so
many simultaneous
sightings of th e bike that they can’t all
have been the stolen one. What if one
of th e Facebook group had wrongly
tackled a bunch of kids? How would that
have ended?Crime fighting is growing on social media,
but it brings dangers, argues Barry Collins
Page 404
You can get a sense of how some folk
would deal with such a prob lem just by
reading their comments. When one of
the aforementioned groups reported
two lads “armed with bolt croppers”
thre atening kids in the area, one
memberresponded: “funny how
people don’t gang up onthem and
rough them up. Knife or no knife, there
are waysand means of defending
yourself from armed attackers. It pays
to learn them”. He might just be a
keyboar d warrior, he might not.
At best, Facebook’s crim e-busting
groups are an online extension of
Neighbourhood Watch; at worst, they’r e
armed vigil antes, such as the group
formed on Facebook in the Midlands
town of Kidsgr ove, who are reportedly
readying themselves with baseball bats
to tackle the anti-social behaviour the
police don’t have the resources to deal
with in the town.
Crimin als not being brought to book
or being brought to Facebook? I’m not
sure what’s worse.There’s a serious risk
that amateur sleuths will
make amateur mistakes- orworse
I
s Boris Johnson actually goingto
deliver on his promise of 20,000 new
Bobbies on the beat?Who cares?
BecauseFacebook has establisheda
far bigger crime-fightingforce of itsown.
With th e police starved of th e
resources to investigate petty crim e
properly, millions of social media
users are taking matters into their own
hands. Search for any town or village
on the social network and you’re likely
to find a Facebook group where people
post photos of stolen items or
suspected thieves.
Official Crime & Community Watch
Harwich has 6,500 members and the
motto “Let’s Make Our Beautiful Town
Safe”. Exmouth Watch has 2,600 crim e
spotters who are “sharing information
and warnin gs regarding crim e”. DN35
CrimeWatch up in Cl eethorpes has
35,000 members and encourages folk
to post “CCTV foot age of th efts taking
place” and “anything you would deem
to be crim e related”. Boris hasn’t got a
prayer of matchingthese numbers.
Facebook crim estoppers can be very
effe ctive at retr ieving stolen goods.
Recently , a friend posted pictures of her
nephew’s distinctive stolen bike on her
local town’s Facebook group. Within
hours, people were posting sightings of
the bike and sharing
photos of th e
alleged thieves
ridingit at a train
station. The next
morning , said bike
was safely back with
said nephew, after
someonenoticed it
dumped outside the town. All’s well that
ends well?
Well, yes and no. There’s little doubt
in my mind that if left to the police, my
friend’s nephew’s bike would never have Illustra
tion
:Andr
ew
To
rr
ens
Facebook justice
fills the gap left by police