Click of a mouse catches the rats

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This was published 12 years ago

Click of a mouse catches the rats

By Michelle Hoctor

A woman holds up the Dapto KFC and within days a suspect is identified through a description posted on Facebook.

A 79-year-old woman goes missing from a Sydney nursing home and is later located by an online "fan" of the NSW Police.

Wollongong Detective Inspector Tim Beattie says eyewatch is putting crime fighting at people's fingertips.

Wollongong Detective Inspector Tim Beattie says eyewatch is putting crime fighting at people's fingertips.

Welcome to Project eyewatch, a world-first policing strategy which uses social media to bring the 30-year-old Neighbourhood Watch program into the 21st century, while fighting crime in the process.

Project manager Chief Inspector Josh Maxwell said the program was devised in acknowledgement that while people still cared about their community, they no longer had time to attend regular meetings in a community hall.

Eyewatch project manager Chief Inpsector Josh Maxwell (right) and Superintendent Geoff McKechnie show off Rural eyewatch at a Dubbo launch.

Eyewatch project manager Chief Inpsector Josh Maxwell (right) and Superintendent Geoff McKechnie show off Rural eyewatch at a Dubbo launch.

"But they do have time to jump on line and look at the news feeds from their local police. And while it's still early days, the program is showing that people are also more prepared to talk to the police online," he said.

"The social networking phenomenon is here to stay, and certainly the NSW Police Force through this project is seeking to harness the power of community through our eyewatch program."

Insp Maxwell said the idea of advancing Neighbourhood Watch through social media was put forward last year by the NSW Liberals as part of their pre-election manifesto. The program was taken up by police and launched by NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell in 10 pilot commands on August 5.

The Lake Illawarra and Wollongong local area commands (LAC) established pages on August 26 and today, between them, have almost 2000 members and 280,000 hits.

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State wide, the success had been phenomenal: 64 of 80 commands are on board with more than 42,000 members and seven million hits in just four months.

The Shoalhaven was trained this week. All 80 commands will be on board by March 1.

Insp Maxwell said that eyewatch was a live site through which information was continuously fed, such as incidents of crime, appeals for assistance, crime prevention tips, bushfire, flood and weather warnings, and traffic information.

As was demonstrated with the recent Blue Mountains bushfires, emergency management formed part of the brief, while a Crime Stoppers link was also available.

In turn, the community was encouraged to post information about events and concerns in their area, which helped police develop strategies to address these problems.

NSW Minister for Police Michael Gallacher, a former police officer who helped devise the eyewatch concept, said this exchange of information was the key purpose of the program.

"It's about communities regaining control and confidence over their local areas and over crime," he said.

"The 'eye' of the program will be its success because it is the eyes of community members, their knowledge and their experience, captured and shared with police to drive down crime."

Insp Maxwell said that this aim was advanced with the ability for Neighbourhood Watch groups to come on line and talk to police in a closed group environment.

While the roll-out of groups in the Illawarra was not expected until the new year, Paul Hutchinson, who is precinct co-ordinator for the new Riverstone Neighbourhood Watch which operates a closed group on the Quakers Hill LAC page, said his experience with the program had been positive.

"I formed the group after my mum's place got broken into. I put an alert on Facebook and then I thought, 'bugger this, I'm going to start a group'. By the next morning I had over 100 members.

"It involves exchanges of information; things like any alerts the police have, or anything we see that's suspicious in the neighbourhood."

He said that in one case a concern was expressed about speeding cars along a particular road.

"The response was immediate, with police increasing their patrols along that stretch. It was an extremely good outcome."

Wollongong crime manager Detective Inspector Tim Beattie said his command was keen to establish closed online groups, with the scope open to not just Neighbourhood Watch, but various other demographics.

"With a Crown St Mall group, for example, we could send information about shoplifting and vandalism; 'be on the lookout for someone dropping cheques that are bouncing'," he said.

He said his experience of eyewatch was that whereas people were previously happy to wait and receive police information at community meetings, today they wanted immediate answers.

"Eyewatch is about reaching a lot more people who are becoming text savvy and want information at their fingertips," he said.

A demonstration of the exchange of information came last month when a resident expressed her concern about entrails found floating in Bellambi pool.

The police response: "Thanks Karen, organs were taken by police and analysed and found to be sheep intestines."

Lake Illawarra Acting Crime Manager, Insp Greg Mahon said areas of focus for groups in his command included Stockland Shellharbour, Dapto Mall and Warrawong CBD commercial precincts, and the Unanderra industrial estate.

He said that the ability to get information into the public domain within a short time had been beneficial. Already there had been incidents of people apprehended as a result of appeals posted on the Lake page.

This involved the Dapto KFC case which occurred last month and was still before the court.

"We've also got, when people have contacted Crime Stoppers, they've said 'I read this on your Facebook page'," he said.

He said a pleasing, unexpected result was the community feedback. "We get a large amount of positive feedback that the police don't normally hear."

Insp Maxwell said other successes had included the case of a 79-year-old woman who went missing from a nursing home in north-west Sydney. Police divers were about to search the local waterways when a breakthrough was made, via eyewatch.

"A lady came home and fired up the computer, read the description we'd posted and, out of the goodness of her own heart, jumped in her car, went for a drive and about 20 minutes later came across the missing lady.

"We've had a myriad offenders identified through publishing CCTV; offenders have been arrested for theft, robbery, warrants, graffiti, other malicious damage offences. We're now gaining significant information and intelligence about social problems across our commands."

University of Wollongong sociologist Dr Andrew Whelan said social media had proved extremely beneficial in connecting people who were either socially isolated or too busy to connect in person.

"It's hard for some demographics who care about the community to get together. In many ways, eyewatch is a laudable initiative in terms of community engagement."

He said, however, that social media was a double-edged sword. While an online call-to-arms resulted in people marshalling with their brooms to clean up the streets following this year's London riots, it could not be forgotten how the riots were fuelled.

"We were told that Blackberry Messenger was being used to co-ordinate looting and that the technology maybe should be banned."

Such was the eyewatch success, both the Victorian and South Australian police have been briefed with a view to rolling out the scheme.

Interest has also been expressed in the United Kingdom and by the United States-based Facebook headquarters, with a view to taking the project worldwide.

"The potential for this is mind-blowing. We're really only hitting the tip of the iceberg with this," Insp Maxwell said.

This article first appeared in the Illawarra Mercury

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