Police hunting for criminals on Facebook

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 21 Apr 2008 at 10:49

The police have developed a new Facebook application which asks the public for information on local criminals.

The Greater Manchester Police have released the GMP Updates application, which highlights unsolved cases in the Greater Manchester area and shows YouTube clips of unsolved crimes.

If a user has any tips or information for the police on a particular event they can send them instantly via the "Submit Intelligence" feature.

"I think it's rather sad that getting the attention of civilians has resorted to Facebook applications. It's a really touching idea though," says one Facebook user, Ed Neville, on the group wall.

The move may be innovative, but at the time of writing the group had only 69 members, which may limit its crime-fighting potential somewhat.

The new application is the first of its kind, but is not the first time that the social networking site has had a brush with the law. Last year a man was jailed for breaking a restraining order that prohibited him from contacting his wife when he accidentally messaged her through the site.

The GMP has previously launched a video upload site allowing members of the public to report crimes by uploading footage of them occurring.