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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."
Orwellian much?
Why would the cops care? They have "evidence", someone ends up in the pokey, and they get to be "tough on crime". Everyone is guilty of something so whoever they do throw the book at had it coming anyways.
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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.
Just like in East Germany (back in the day)... Spy on your neighbors, report back to The State!
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
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
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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