Communities fighting crime with social media

GEELONG residents are taking crime-solving into their own hands through community Facebook pages.

A NewsCorp survey has found more than 10 active community crime pages across Geelong and 78 similar groups across Melbourne with 350,000-plus members.

The engaged groups — one posting as frequently as 35 times a day — are harnessing the power of social media to mobilise their neighbourhoods into everything from tracking down car thieves to finding missing people.

Batesford’s Kevin Collister helped develop a communitybased app where residents push a button that will alert neighbours they need help.

The app was created by Mr Collister and Ryan Yockins after a number of break-andenters in Batesford’s Riverstone Estate.

“The police do a fantastic job, but basically as a community we decided we needed to do something about this (rising crime rate),” Mr Collister said in 2017.

Yesterday Mr Collier said the app and a community Facebook page had “galvanised the community” and led to a decrease in local crime.

But police have warned people of the pitfalls of posting crime-related content, from defamation and contempt of court to potentially jeopardising their own safety.

Victoria Police Inspector Martin Allison reminded people to consider the potential legal and safety ramifications of crime-related posts.

“Where local people are commenting on local pages, they need to be aware that other people in the community may know who they are and other personal details about them which could open them to inappropriate contact,” he said. “Criminals can also access these public pages and use them to identify who they have stolen from and potentially how close they are to being caught.”

Insp Allison warned moderators to monitor posts and remove them if a criminal investigation had started, as comments or posts had the potential to affect the outcome of court matters.

“Those monitoring these pages should also ensure that any information they have on crimes or suspicious activity is reported through to police or Crime Stoppers so it can be followed up,” he said.

RMIT communications senior lecturer Jenny Robinson said such Facebook groups could engage and mobilise people in a positive way, provided they had clear objectives and weren’t hijacked by vigilantes.

“The most important thing is about having a clear guide for behaviour and a clear intention of what you want the page to be,” Dr Robinson said.

“Make sure you control the content and that comments don’t get out of hand.”