Wireless innovation company, Waleli, has developed MMS-witness, a ground-breaking, yet simple, use of the 295 million camera phones* on the street to help fight crime. MMS-witness allows the police to easily accept pictures and movies taken by members of the public using mobile phones to increase the chances of a successful arrest.
MMS-witness highlights to people that the digital camera they are carrying can be used to combat crime. The introduction of MMS-witness will see the number of "eyes"Â on the street rise dramatically as well as helping to provide increasingly reliable witness statements.
How MMS-witness works
Having taken a photograph or filmed a movie, the person texts the file to a central, secured police database using a country-wide telephone number. The image is reviewed, stored on the database and, if required, sent to the mobile phones / PDAs of police officers on the street to help increase the chances of a successful arrest.
"In Europe alone, more than half the population carry a camera phone in their pocket. The use of camera phones to take photographs in a social setting is an everyday occurrence,"Â said Lawrence Masle, Head of International Business Development at Waleli.
He continued: "The huge leap in the quality of camera phones has helped fuel the growth of citizen journalism. News programmes now actively encourage members of the public to send in photographs or footage of significant news events that they have captured on their mobile phones. The tremendous growth in citizen journalism demonstrates that members of the public want to get involved with situations in their neighbourhood.
"MMS-witness takes the concept one step further. It enables people to send images to the police that could either help prevent a crime taking place or provide valuable witness material when a crime has been committed to help secure a conviction. And the number of people getting involved in MMS-witness will increase dramatically as they realise that they can help the police increase their chances of making an arrest."Â
A short film showing MMS-witness in action can be found at this web address: www.waleli.com/content/Movies/MMSwitness.wmv
MMS-witness in action
Waleli has been working with the Dutch police force to put MMS-witness on the national agenda, conduct market and usability research, and define the optimal roadmap for implementation. In its initial stage, MMS-witness allows the police to capture pictures of crimes, evidence and situational environments. These pictures are taken by police officers themselves, and used within normal routines to provide additional supporting information.
Longer term, MMS-witness could be expanded to include other organizations that work alongside the police including transport providers, private security firms, and emergency services. In addition, it could have a role to play in supporting local initiatives such as The National Reassurance Policing Programme (http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/community-policing/national-...) which is about communities identifying and prioritising local crime and disorder issues, which they tackle together with the police and other public services.
MMS-witness - the de facto European standard
In the same way that 999 is the UK's single telephone number that connects callers with the emergency services (or 112 across Europe), MMS-witness has the potential to become the standard communication channel for sending mobile phone images to the local, in-country police force - all via a UK / Europe-wide standard telephone number.
* Source: Gartner
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