Crime fighting site Facewatch free for retailers

Published: 14 February, 2012

Facewatch, a database which allows retailers to share CCTV images in the fight against petty crime, is being offered for free to all UK firms.

The database allows retailers to report crime online as well as share CCTV images directly. A trial run in Victoria and Westminster last year resulted in a 73% increase in detection rates of low level crime as well as savings in police time and costs.

Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas said: "I am very pleased to chair this exciting initiative which enables the Police and businesses to work closely together to reduce low level crime and help to make our Communities safer."

Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, added: "The system is a catalyst for businesses and Police to join together; a great example of citizens and communities getting involved alongside the Police."

Facewatch was created by Simon Gordon in an effort to reduce petty crime in his family's wine bar - London's Gordon's Wine Bar. He was frustrated by the practical difficulties of reporting crime in a way that allowed police to act quickly.

The web-based Facewatch provides a complete online evidential pack including images, moving CCTV footage and witness statements.

Gordon, sponsor of the not-for-profit 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 with low level crime problems to be part of the solution, but at no cost to themselves, is a step in the right direction."

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