Met Police ditches mobile phone app for the public to report crime despite ‘more evidence’ from victims
Officers will no longer be able to accept tip-offs from the Self Evident app because Scotland Yard told developers it had 'not harvested enough benefit to justify a potential cost'
POLICE have ditched the use of a mobile phone app set up for the public to report crimes.
Thousands of incidents have been reported and masses of evidence passed on since the free system was launched. It allows users to send police photo and video evidence or report crime in an instant from their smartphone.
But Scotland Yard has told developers its officers will no longer accept tip-offs or evidence sent to them on the Self Evident app. Last night the developers described the move as “madness”.
More than 27,000 people have the app on their phone and have used it to supply 5,000 pieces of evidence and 3,500 crime reports.
Designers of the app say it has enabled users to report crimes ranging from anti–social behaviour to terrorism offences quickly and easily. It allows people to collect evidence immediately, while the facts are fresh in their mind.
Guy Dehn, director of Witness Confident, the charity which promotes the app, said the app had been welcomed by officers as a valuable tool in capturing evidence, saving time and securing confictions.
He added: “For the Met to turn its back on such a valuable source of public support and information is madness. This bodes ill for the future of policing by consent. The Self Evident app is a state of the art expression of Sir Robert Peel’s principle that ‘the police are the public, the public are the police’.”
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Only last month Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick that they need more information about people carrying weapons to help with them tackle rocketing knife crime in the capital. But the Metropolitan Police have warned the app’s promotors the public will no longer be able to send them evidence from Wednesday.
It is believed they want their own digital programme – but London Assembly members have expressed concern over its development. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of crimes, including thefts, burglaries and violent assaults, are not reported each year because members of the public feel it will not be worth their while.
Last year, about half a million calls made to the police’s 101 non–emergency service went unanswered, according to figures obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
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