About 10 years ago, I was on holiday on the South-West coast of France and my family woke one morning to find that towels, t-shirts and other clothing had been stolen from our washing line. Granted, it’s unwise to leave valuables outdoors overnight, but the thieves had entered a secure backyard, and had stolen expensive items.

We contacted local police to report the theft, and they told us that there’d be no chance of recovery. In fact, they saw no point in even taking down a list of what was stolen, and thought our charge was a waste of their time.

This past summer, we were back in the same town and experienced the same thing: in the night people had climbed over the padlocked gate and stolen over $100 worth of clothing. Frustrated that we’d be so foolish to let it happen again, but angry that it did, we again expected the police to take action. Even posters that remind tourists of the chance of theft would be helpful, but of course any holiday resort would be unlikely to publicise their crime problems.

So little chance of reclaiming the goods, and zero chance of returning them should they be found, since the police refused to take any record of the theft. For them, the cost of paperwork exceeded any expected benefit of solving the crime.

WIBBI: Citizens could report their own instances of petty crime?

The individual police officer clearly has no incentive to take action, but the person who’s suffered from crime does. We would have been quite willing to fill in the forms necessary to register the theft on a database, so that informaiton would be available to ascertain a pattern of crime, and return recovered goods to victims.
The unwillingness of local police to make a claim inhibits ability to claim on insurance, and so:

WIBB: Citizens who register crime have an option for that crime to be investigated by police should an insurance claim need to be made?

I envisage an electronic database, on the local government website where citizens are free to report petty crime, or other disturbances that are costly for police to respond to in person. Although false claims may be made (and they are anyway), at least an engagement between citizens and police will assure us that we’re not helpless in the face of victimhood. 

Wrap up...

Sponsor

Kable Ltd

Authors with password: click here to post

BLOGS & CRITICAL FRIENDS
Action on Rights for Children
Big Opt-Out
Dave's public sector blogs
David Osimo
David Milliband
DFID bloggers
FIPR
FutureGov
Ian Brown
Jeff Jonas, IBM
Jerry Fishenden
Kim Cameron, MS
Light blue touchpaper
Matthew Somerville
NHS23
No2ID
Obama team blog
Public strategist
Richard Allan
Robin Wilton, Sun
Sam Smith
Schneier
Spy blog
Toby Stevens/CW
Verified Voting
Whitehall Webby

PERTINENT ART
ACLU privacy pizza
Very model of a notional identity
Swizz of the cards
Handelsman: NSA wiretaps
Handelsman: US spying
Wearcam
Googlezon
Three dead trolls
Stefanos Pantagis

ESSENTIALS

Cluetrain Manifesto
RAE Dilemmas of Privacy
NCC Playlist for public services
Sousveillance
Stefan Brands' book summary
Ross Anderson book

Engelbart Mother of all demos
OTHER ID/SECURITY
ID theft spy
Planet Identity
Pledgebank for refuseniks
Home Office ID cards
Ann Cavoukian, Ontario

MYSOCIETY & SAM'S STUFF
MySociety/
They work for you
Fax your MP
DirectionlessGov
Comment on This
Place-O-Pedia

...and the original
Stand ID card campaign

OUR 2005 MAPS MASHUPS WINNERS
Plymouth Schools
Ben's UK speed cameras
5-day weather forecast
House sale prices
g-Traffic info

More Google maps mashups:
Googlemapsmania blog


Old stuff
RSS in government blog
Stefan Brands old blog