May 26, 2006
Mothers recruited as camera phone vigilantes
Mothers armed with camera phones are helping Manteca Police (California) collar young vandals trying to trash Woodward Park, reports the Manteca Bulletin .
"A sudden surge of vandalism to the playground equipment is prompting mothers using the park with their children to fight back. Their weapon of choice: cameraphones
“It’s a great help,” said Manteca Police crime prevention officer Rex Osborn. “Many of the images are pretty sharp and we’re using them with school resource officers and beat officers to try and identify those responsible.”
Other vigilante schemes:
-- Holla Back The Holla Back NYC website encourages women to photograph sexual harassers and post the photos for the world to see.
-- Harlow council uses MMS to catch vandals - The town is encouraging people to take pictures of anti-social acts on their mobile phones and then text them to a special number along with details of where the vandalism has occurred.
-- Snap a picture of a traffic offender - The Transport Ministry of Malaysia invited the public snap pictures of traffic offenders and send them to the Hall of Shame section of a newly launched road safety website.
Good reading:
-- Cell Phone Vigilantes - A well written and well rounded article by Bennett Gordon from Understanding the next revolution on cameraphones, citizen journalism, the privacy issues surrounding localisation and the availability (for a fee) of cell phone records.
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