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Cops To Start CrimeTube To Report Offenses
An anonymous reader writes "UK citizens may soon be able to report crimes by uploading videos taken from their mobile phones. Ian Readhead, director of information for the Association of Chief Police Officers, told silicon.com that forces want to build a video reporting portal to allow the public to upload potential evidence. Checking YouTube is now a routine part of many police investigations, he said, and police want to build on the extra functionality that this gives them."
How long before people start using this new tech to make bogus insurance claims??
Orwellian much?
I'm more interested in a mobile phone YouTube to report misdeeds and abuses by police officers.
I say that even though most of my interactions with police officers, even if they haven't been necessarily pleasant due to the circumstances, have been professional. It's just that I've been there and seen enough abuses of authority by bad cops to know that when it does happen, the only thing that's going to help you is video evidence.
I wish those nine out ten good cops wouldn't cover for that one bad cop.
My concern is that this will turn into citizens adopting a semi-crazed state of vigilantism. In the States where I'm from people around here take the Neighborhood Watch program WAY too seriously -- 24/7 neighborhood patrols in their cars, radio communications, etc. Now that people can upload possible evidence, I can see people taking a fairly innocent concept to a whole new level -- actively looking for "crimes" and recording the footage. And, what about privacy issues? It would only be a matter of time before people start suspecting their neighbots of "crimes" and put 24/7 surveillance on them.
Post it on YouTube AND their site. If it doesn't appear on their site, come back to YouTube and say "I sent this to the official crime-reporting site but they pretended it didn't happen" and watch your view counter spin like Orwell in his grave.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Arguments like yours seem not well thought out to me. Yes you could frame him for a crime. Hell, why not shoot a few people and leave the smoking gun in his garage too?
Well I'll tell you why, because police actually INVESTIGATE a crime. They aren't going to look at one video or piece of evidence, throw him in jail, and call it a day. They are going to look at all the evidence as a body to see what fits...
So what happens when the evidence YOU submitted turns out to be the only information that doesn't mesh with everything else they have collected? They are going to come asking you some tough questions, and if you really tried to frame someone I hope you like sharing rooms with rough men because that's where you are headed.
There's a reason in the past why people generally don't try to make up evidence and video is no exception. Personally I think it's great that people can submit video to help catch criminals if they are too concerned about personal safety to get involved. Wouldn't you rather have user submitted videos of crime submitted by real people than have monitoring cameras everywhere "just in case?". I lean on the side of trusting people in an area to say "hey, there's a problem here".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yeah, it's not so much "Big Brother is watching you" it is "Little Brothers and Sisters are watching you".
This can't be good.
It makes it too easy. Let's say that your neighbor likes to smoke pot from time to time, and that bothers you. Normally you would have to call the police and file and official complaint. Not anymore. Just get your crappy cell phone out and submit the video and wait for the police come to take them away.
To me, it is one of those "whatwouldpossiblygowrong" type things. I feel that it should be at least a "little bit of a pain in the ass" to file a complaint with the police. Making small amounts of red tape (i.e. you actually have to call a phone number and talk to somone) limits the number of frivilous complaints.
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I wonder what will happen to the videos of police committing crimes?
If believed to be connected with terrorism (and isn't everything?) then taking pictures/video of police offers is against the law in the UK.
It makes it too easy. Let's say that your neighbor likes to smoke pot from time to time, and that bothers you.
I'm not saying that the behavior should be any more illegal than smoking tobacco (Arguably it should be far less so) but if you smoke weed where it's illegal and you do it in plain sight of someone you don't know you can trust then you're a bozo.
Making small amounts of red tape (i.e. you actually have to call a phone number and talk to somone) limits the number of frivilous complaints.
You'll probably have to fill out a form when you upload the video, too.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This website would become a veritable Mecca for such videos! If the cops were to take them down, they would be spending all of their time doing that.
It's really not, you can film the police in public like anyone else. The thing is, the police generally don't actually realise this, or they simply lie, and will tell you that it's illegal.
Any police officer who tells a citizen that something is illegal, when it is in fact clearly legal, is actually trying to intimidate that person. It's an attempt to coerce that citizen to get them to stop doing something merely because the officer personally does not like it. The cop knows it's not illegal, and if not, the cop is incompetent. We don't need cops who are either malicious or incompetent. This is wrong and should never be tolerated. Any officer who does this should be fired and barred from ever holding any law enforcement position. I would feel this way even if there were a severe shortage of police officers. I am not very fond of cops, but sometimes I feel like I respect the importance of their job more than they do.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein