Facebook against Crime

by Sneh on August 16th, 2011 

In the world where people tweet if they are upset, they update their Facebook status if they are happy, they blog if they are impressed and they do everything on social media; you call it joy of sharing or joy of making people jealous or may be a medium to reach out to maximum people possible but this trend has changed a lot of conventional things. For example social media has compelled companies to enter into this platform to market and to manage their online reputation but what I am going to tell you is something different.





Following the London looting and riots last week, Scotland Yard police launched a new initiative yesterday called “Made From Crime” that allows users to report criminal activity anonymously on Facebook.
So those who always wanted to fight against the crime but never got a chance can grab this opportunity, it amazing to even think and public is working with the police to make any nation a crime free place.
This follows the New York Police Department’s move last week to create a Facebook crime watch unit.
Scotland Yard’s Facebook initiative is the first scheme of its kind in the country and is backed by the government.

It makes full use of the country’s Proceeds of Crime Act, which allows officers to seize assets that have been purchased through criminal activity.
More than 41 million British pounds ($67 million) have been seized since enacted in 2002 and reinvested in community projects in Scotland, according to the Scotsman.

Police Assistant Chief Constable Iain Livingstone told the BBC:
We know there are people living beyond their means on the proceeds of crime… and that communities are suffering from the side effects of drug dealing, violence and other associated crimes. I personally appeal to local communities that have any information to come forward immediately… We will act on intelligence and bring offenders to justice.

According to the Edinburgh News, those who are unable to show exactly how they were able to pay for expensive goods could be pursued even if they are not convicted of a crime.
“I am delighted that this new initiative will allow people to use social media to report anonymously those who they see flaunting ill-gotten gains before them,” Solicitor General Lesley Thomson QC told the BBC.
Though this is a great initiative but people might take time to fully adopt as they may always feel threat of their safety and their lives because if police can use social media to track the criminals so can the criminals to track the informer. Chances of success of the initiative are high if implemented with full caution without imposing any threat to the general public.

source : http://2leep.com