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Queenstown police have created a new page on Facebook that displays local offenders so that people may help them identify and arrest them - Source: ONE News -
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Queenstown police are hoping friends on Facebook will help solve
local crimes.
They have set up a page on the popular networking site with video
and pictures, to help identify offenders they are chasing.
Constable Sean Drader believes that people like being some sort of a deputy sheriff, where they can help solve crime.
"Some people really love it, they go right out of their way to keep their eyes open and report back to us so for those people it's good fun," says Drader.
Businesses are obviously keen to get crimes solved and the criminals caught and made to pay.
"When you're woken up at 1.30 in the morning someone breaking
into your door and you've got to pay for the panelling & seems
like a good idea to me," says Trond Johansson, Goldfields
Jewellers.
"I think it'll just be a really good deterrent to have this on
Facebook, so people are aware we are actually watching them and
they can't get away with these things," says Sue Fairclough, Youth
Hostel Association.
Police say they will only put people up on the site if there is a warrant for their arrest or they can actually see them doing the crime.
And once they are identified they will be removed.
But privacy experts say it's a lot of public humiliation for some petty crimes.
"It looks to me as if someone hasn't thought through the process of putting it on the internet - and you would expect a principled approach and a proportionate approach, some of it looks pretty minor, pretty petty," says Privacy lawyer John Edwards.
National police headquarters says the Facebook page is a local initiative.
Police in Blenheim are doing something similar on Bebo, with the
page already having hundreds of friends signed up and is being
looked at as a trial for the rest of the country.
Check out Facebook page
