On-Line Policemen

My brother is a law lecturer with a specialisation in community policing. He is just back from a trip to study the way they do it in Canada, as the problem is international. Our Bobby, who you used to turn to if your cat was lost, you saw something funny going on or a traffic accident needed sorting out, is no more. Instead, we have numerous "Agencies" helping out with greater or lesser police powers. The "standard" Bobbies job is now mainly catching criminals - not even preventing crime. The problem for yer man-in-the-street is that although he may see a policeman, it may not be a "real" one, and in any case, there may be a special agency who has powers delegated to them to address our man's needs. If you think this is complex and confusing, it sure is. In the problem zone of cities, just outside the centre, crime and social misbehaviour is high and much of it is not dealt with because the right people are not on the spot.

Now here is an idea (remember you read it here first). In our on-line world, we have communities who get together on forums to discuss things we have an interest in (http://www.worldseafishing.com/ in my case), and those discussions can be very active. So active in fact, that sometimes on-line fights start and Something Has To Be Done. Forum etiquette is self-imposed by the communities through voluntary Moderators, who have certain powers to intervene, and Administrators who have greater powers. Anyone in the community can alert a Moderator, who can deal with it, with or without additional help. My idea is this. Why not extend this back to real-life? Set up Moderators and Administrators who can be alerted via text from our man-in-the-street community, they can have have a look via CCTV if necessary, and request on-the-spot assistance from the relevant agency. We can even grade these community alerts according to credibility based on previous alerts. If old ladies can switch on street lighting in German villages late at night using their mobile phones (see Dial a Street Light), surely my policing idea could be worth a try?