The aim of this blog is to highlight the use of social media to provide real time information on crime in your local area. To enable all the eyes and ears of a community to work as one.
Social Media is a powerful tool to spread news as it happens. In our time-stretched lives many of us never consider attending meetings and events about preventing crime in the local area until it's too late. Social media can offer an easy, quick and free way to keep updated. An online community which can be used in conjunction with the police and neighborhood watch schemes and taking simple steps to secure your home will enhance the protection of everyone.
Please share this idea and set up a Facebook group and/or Twitter account for your own area which we will be happy to link to. The aim is for every town and village to have a Twitter account or Facebook group. You could even start a small private group just for your street or a designated zone.
A note to all - when posting alerts online be mindful about posting information that feeds details on your short comings in personal security. This is the very thing predators use to help them identify weaknesses:
1. Share crime incident descriptions and descriptions of perpetrators. Give the street name but not the full address.
2. Connect with law enforcement using your Facebook group.
3. Use your Facebook group to point out public safety issues (burned-out streetlights, street signs hidden by vines, abandoned cars, broken windows, etc.), and then take those issues to the council to get them fixed!
4. Involve local businesses, especially the service industry workers who are often the last ones going home at night or starting early in the morning. Restaurants, milkmen, taxi firms, corner shops, checkout operators and cleaners and so on. These people can be your best eyes and ears.
5. Private message nearby neighbors if you want to inform them you are going away. Think about posting holiday news or days out onto social network sites after you get back.
6. Check out your current Facebook privacy settings. If they are open or you do not personally know all your Facebook friends consider turning off your location settings on your posts and photos. Be extra careful when using social networks such as Foursquare.
Social Media is a powerful tool to spread news as it happens. In our time-stretched lives many of us never consider attending meetings and events about preventing crime in the local area until it's too late. Social media can offer an easy, quick and free way to keep updated. An online community which can be used in conjunction with the police and neighborhood watch schemes and taking simple steps to secure your home will enhance the protection of everyone.
Please share this idea and set up a Facebook group and/or Twitter account for your own area which we will be happy to link to. The aim is for every town and village to have a Twitter account or Facebook group. You could even start a small private group just for your street or a designated zone.
A note to all - when posting alerts online be mindful about posting information that feeds details on your short comings in personal security. This is the very thing predators use to help them identify weaknesses:
1. Share crime incident descriptions and descriptions of perpetrators. Give the street name but not the full address.
2. Connect with law enforcement using your Facebook group.
3. Use your Facebook group to point out public safety issues (burned-out streetlights, street signs hidden by vines, abandoned cars, broken windows, etc.), and then take those issues to the council to get them fixed!
4. Involve local businesses, especially the service industry workers who are often the last ones going home at night or starting early in the morning. Restaurants, milkmen, taxi firms, corner shops, checkout operators and cleaners and so on. These people can be your best eyes and ears.
5. Private message nearby neighbors if you want to inform them you are going away. Think about posting holiday news or days out onto social network sites after you get back.
6. Check out your current Facebook privacy settings. If they are open or you do not personally know all your Facebook friends consider turning off your location settings on your posts and photos. Be extra careful when using social networks such as Foursquare.
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