As regular readers of Info4Security will know, Facewatch provides online crime reporting and CCTV image sharing directly to the police service and has been awarded Secured by Design status by ACPO, the Association of Chief Police Officers.
The solution was created by Simon Gordon who was determined to reduce petty crime at his family’s famous Gordon’s Wine Bar in London.
Gordon was frustrated by the practical difficulties of reporting crime in a way that the police could act on quickly and effectively. His solution was to use the power of the Internet to bridge the gap between CCTV and the police.
The web-based system – which provides a complete online evidential pack including images, moving CCTV footage and witness statements – was launched last year and is now proven to improve conviction rates, reduce police time and help the victims of crime by providing an instant crime reference and free cancellation of their payment cards through Card Protection offered by CPPGroup Plc (CPP).
The latter service helps to reduce any fraudulent expenditure on lost and stolen payment cards and provides reassurance to victims that their cards cannot be used and that replacements are already on their way.
Facewatch was piloted in London, starting in the Victoria Business Improvement District and Westminster. This resulted in a 73% increase in detection rates of low-level crime as well as measurable savings in police time and costs1.
Reductions in low-level criminality
Speaking about this latest development for the Facewatch initiative, Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas DBE commented: “I’m very pleased to chair this exciting initiative which enables the police and businesses to work closely together on reducing low-level crime and helping to make our communities safer. The new Not-for-Profit company, Facewatch & Partners, represents the interests of all our stakeholders including businesses, the police service, communities and sponsors.”
Dame Judith is a New Zealand-born British lawyer and academic who graduated LLM from the University of Otago. Dame Judith lectured in Otago before moving to the UK as a lecturer in law at King’s College London, and then set up (and became director of) the Anglo-French Law Degree (Sorbonne), the first joint degree in Europe.
In 1989, Dame Judith entered private practice as an employment lawyer, rising to become special adviser to the chairman at Clifford Chance (the world’s largest law firm) before resigning to concentrate on her other roles.
In 2006, Dame Judith was appointed to the Board of Directors of Merrill Lynch.
Dame Judith served as Provost of King’s College, Cambridge from 2003 to 2005. She has also been closely involved in the running of the City of London since 1986, and was awarded the DBE in 2002 “for services to the City of London”.
She was the first woman to become not only chairman of the Royal Opera House but also, from 1996-2003, chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee. Dame Judith was effectively leader of the City of London Corporation.
She has also served on a number of Boards of educational and cultural institutions in recent years, including those at Birkbeck, University of London and Imperial College, London.
Dame Judith remains on the Board of Gresham College, is a Trustee of the Natural History Museum and a vice-president of London First as well as chairman of London & Partners.
Endorsement from Sir Hugh Orde
Sir Hugh Orde, president of ACPO, stated: “I’m pleased to support Facewatch for its practical use of technology in the fight to combat crime. The system is a catalyst for businesses and the police to join together. It’s a great example of citizens and communities getting involved alongside the police.”
Facewatch & Partners’ goal is to spread the experience of the Victoria BID and Westminster pilot around the UK, firstly focusing on London, so that all businesses can benefit from this innovative use of technology to solve the problem of low level crime.
Simon Gordon, himself a sponsor of Facewatch & Partners, said: “My aim is to reduce low-level crime rather than just fill up our prisons with offenders. To do this I believe we need to create a strong deterrent, and the creation of Facewatch as a national low-level crime database which enables all businesses facing such crime problems to be part of the solution, but at no cost to themselves, is a step in the right direction.”
Gordon continued: “I’m proud to be the founding sponsor for Facewatch & Partners and fully support the objective of providing the system free to businesses and the police service. The more people who get involved in tackling low-level crime the better. I hope that many businesses will want to join me in sponsoring Facewatch & Partners.”
Gordon founded Facewatch with a group of like-minded individuals in April 2010. He’s executive chairman of Facewatch.
He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1981. Former roles for Gordon have included finance director of The Skandia UK Group and finance director of Royal Trust Fund Management. Gordon has also held further finance roles in the City.
Reference
1Metropolitan Police Service figures based on 2011 Facewatch pilot
- Time saved per crime reported through Facewatch: 2 hours
- Detection rate: 8.8% versus 5.1% (an increase of 73%)
- Circulation of CCTV images: two weeks faster than normal
The background to Facewatch
Personal theft, shoplifting and other low-level crimes such as vandalism are expensive problems for business owners and the public. Facewatch is a proven Internet-based system which, by empowering business owners to work in partnership with the police, allows crimes to be reported quicker with the correct evidential information and witness statements. This enables the police to begin investigations immediately and the business owner(s) to proactively help the victim(s).
- Window stickers act as a powerful deterrent to would-be offenders
- Strong emphasis on preventing and detecting prolific offenders
- Online crime reporting using any device with an Internet browser
- No special equipment required: a computer with broadband access is all that’s required
- Works with any existing CCTV system or even without CCTV for reporting only
- Perfect for shops, licensed premises, hotels and all CCTV monitored premises
- Image sharing in groups such as Pubwatches, Shopwatches, BIDs, shopping centres, high streets, retail chains and larger retail groups
- Direct link to local police forces and appropriate officers – police update the crime status throughout the investigation and can use the system for secure messaging between the business and case officers which remains on the case file
- Creation of posters showing images of banned or suspect persons for use by staff
- Full statistical analyses with key performance indicators showing police status and success rates in solving the crimes
- Fully supported by the police and the only system to be accredited by ACPO’s ‘Secured by Design’ initiative
- Creation of full evidential pack including automatic witness statements and crime reference online by the business user
- Free cancellation of victim’s credit and debit cards by CPP’s Card Protection
- Victim and business updated by police on progress of crime investigation by e-mail
- Training and communications pack for business users
- Improvement in customer care
For further information on the Facewatch initiative access the official website