Poke Stop, police! Met urged to tackle Pokémon Go criminals Editorial Comment
SCOTLAND YARD should deploy “Pokémon plod” to tackle criminals who are targeting players of the hit game, politicians urged today.
London Tories are calling on the Met to station officers near key “Poke Stops” — locations where gamers collect items that help them catch more monsters.
It follows a reported wave of Pokémon-related crime in the UK and US, mainly consisting of phone theft but also violent incidents.
Conservative London Assembly member Steve O’Connell said: “Lots of people are talking about Pokémon Go. It would be great to see the Met taking advantage of this craze and encouraging community officers to visit popular Poke Stops — you even could call them Pokémon plod.
“The game provides a unique opportunit y for neighbourhood policing teams to get involved within the community and, at the same time, tag many more phones that could be recovered if lost or stolen.”
He said he would push the Met and the Mayor to look at the idea after a successful trial by police in South Leicester. Officers were stationed at a Poke Stop in a park where they offered free Smart-Water phone tagging, which makes it easier to trace stolen devices. “Augmented reality” game Pokémon Go has become a worldwide craze. Players use their mobiles to find their way to real sites, where they can discover and capture digital creatures.
Gamers also head to Poke Stops, often located at places of interest such as historical sites or artworks, where they can collect Poke Balls, which are used to capture the monsters.
Thi s month three students were robbed at knifepoint while chasing virtual monsters around a park in Manchester. A Greater Manchester police email alerted officers to a “potential new crime trend” with players “wan- Easy target: players have been robbed dering into areas they are not normally familiar with, in a distracted state, holding their phones out in front of them”.
It warned some are being lured into traps by fellow players, who use the game’s geolocation feature to anticipate a victim’s location then rob them.
In the US this month, armed robbers in Missouri were held after using Pokémon Go to lure victims to an isolated car park, a man in San Antonio was stabbed after driving to a secluded site to capture a creature, and a Wyoming teenager said she found a dead body while playing the game.
THE current Pokémon Go craze, in which players seek out digital creatures in real-life venues, has reportedly been used by criminals to lure victims into their clutches. In response, it is suggested that police should station themselves near “Pokestops” to advise gamers on crime prevention. Officers will have sympathy with the gamers’ endeavour: they spend their lives chasing crooks but never quite seem to “catch ’em all”.