You should have known by now you were on my list…

Want to increase the chances of your stolen property finding its way back to you if recovered? Get it registered on the Nation Mobile Property Register for free!

The other day I was sat in the Investigation Team office with a serious look on my face as I was busy with some very serious police work. I would have continued with said serious work were it not for two response officers wondering in with a PlayStation 3 under their arms.

What was happening? Why weren’t they out fighting crimes?

Well, I think several on my team were hopeful there was about to be an impromptu FIFA tournament – teams were picked and the location of the nearest TV was discussed.

Luckily for me this was not to be the case (my FIFA skills extend no further than repeatedly pressing the ‘hoof the ball into the stands’ button), rather the console they thought might be stolen and they wanted someone to check it to confirm it as being ‘hot’ property.

Breaking my concentration from a particularly engaging prosecution file, I volunteered to help out as I am one of the many officers with access to the National Mobile Property Register (NMPR).

The National what you ask?

Well, as I’ve referenced previously, the NMPR is a big old archive of property that we bobbies can browse when we recover items to see if they’ve been nicked.

By using the totally free Immobilise website, you can build up a ‘vault’ of all your valuables with their serial numbers and even photographs which is then added to the NMPR. We then use this incredibly useful system to help reunite stolen goods with their rightful owners.

Having logged on, we took down the console’s serial number and I tapped it into the NMPR to see what results we got.

Internet cogs turned, the computer made a few grinding noises and half a second later we got a bright red notification linked to the serial number confirming that the PlayStation was indeed stolen property.

This wasn’t all we got though, we also got crime details relating to the original theft meaning we were able to contact the police force that had dealt and arrange for the item to be returned to its rightful owner.

To work as it did in this example, property needs to be registered in the first place so without hesitation I’d encourage you to go and do the following:

1. Make a note of the serial numbers on all your various gadgets and gizmos
2. Take photos of jewellery and other keepsakes that might lack serial numbers
3. Get yourself over to www.immobilse.com and register everything on the National Mobile Property Register for free

So there we have it, three simple steps that you can take here and now to drastically increase the chances of getting your wares back if they fall into the wrong hands.

There was no FIFA tournament for either us or the criminals as arrangements were made to get the console returned to its rightful owner, all because that owner had taken the very sensible step of registering it in advance.

Behind That Locked Door…

Everyone knows that by exploiting a weak point in the Death Star’s design, the Rebel Alliance blew it up. Did you know that your household locks may have a similar weakness that criminals could exploit? (Image from mharrsch)

For reasons known only to Darth Vader, when the engineers were designing the Death Star they built in a vent that should someone happen to shoot down, the entire space station would instantly be rendered inoperable by virtue of it being scattered across the galaxy.

This wasn’t a good idea but then weak points, deliberate or otherwise, rarely are which raises the question of why they exist in the first place.

Even though the whole Death Star thing happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, weak points are still things that crop up from time to time and at the moment in the world of home security, are causing a few issues in relation to a type of lock commonly used on uPVC doors.

The ‘Euro cylinder’ is a type of lock that’s often found on plastic doors and like the Death Star, unfortunately has a weak point that criminals with tools a lot less sophisticated than proton torpedoes have been able to exploit.

The method, known as lock snapping, involves using a tool to apply force to the lock cylinder which then responds by snapping at its weakest point. It takes minutes to do and and allows the bad guy to simply open the door and step inside.

In Yorkshire the lock snapping method has been a factor in a quarter of their burglaries and unfortunately, criminals in other areas are getting wise to this simply way of gaining access to people’s homes.

What can you do to secure your own Death Star then?

First of all you need to identify whether your locks are the type that are vulnerable to being snapped.

It’s hard to tell just from looking at them which is Euro cylinder type although this photo shows what they generally look like. Better, ask a locksmith for advice as to which locks you have.

If you have Secured by Design standard doors (fitted after 2010) then you should be okay, older locks though may need to be checked.

Having identified any Euro cylinder style locks, you then want to consider upgrading the barrels to break secure models. You need not replace the entire door, just the mechanism which should be a fairly quick job for a professional.

Combined with following the other sensible crime prevention tips I have offered on this blog over the years (here, there, here, here, here and there too), as well as our Safer Homes advice, you should considerably lower the chances that you’ll return home to discover a break in.

The weak point in the Death Star is generally considered a good thing, depending on whose side you’re on. The same can’t be said about your locks though so go check them before a criminal does it for you!

I don’t think I ever seen so many headlights…

Seen the helicopter up overhead and five police cars dashing off in the same direction? A sign of a huge incident perhaps? Not necessarily, how we allocate resources to jobs depends on a variety of factors as you’ll see below.

Fairly frequently I receive the following tweet from a curious member of the public – ‘There are six police cars blocking off such and such street and I’ve just seen the helicopter drop a police dog down somebody’s chimney, do you know what’s happening?’.

Often I’m off duty when I get these messages so am in no better position than anyone else to say, sometimes if I am in and have heard what’s occurring on the radio I may be able to give a general idea, although the best place to look for information is usually our official departmental social media feeds.

As it is, the sight of police car after police car zooming by usually gives the impression that something big is going down nearby, ‘big’ as in headlines of the news at six and front page material.

Curiously though it isn’t necessarily true that the more the officers, the more serious the incident they’re on their way to. How we allocate resources to jobs depends a range of factors extending beyond simply that Godzilla is kicking down bits of Streetly.

Some jobs require as many officers to attend as possible in the first instance as without ‘flooding the area’ as we call it, we determine it’s likely that we won’t get the outcome we’re looking for.

Young missing children would be a good example of this – the usual response when we get a report of a toddler having wondered off in the Saddlers Centre is to ask anyone available to make the location straight away and help with the search.

The longer we leave it, the further an inquisitive young explorer can crawl and so with each passing minute, our search area grows.

The same logic applies to other incidents too – a robbery for example will (literally) attract every man and his dog as we want to maximise our chance of catching suspects.

Sometimes you may see large number of vehicles at an incident because we have some information that we might need a large number of officers for safety or perhaps to stop someone slipping out the back door.

Prior to arrest attempts, for example, we’ll check what we know about the person we’re after and if there are suggestions that he or she has been violent in the past or has a tendency not to stick around, we’ll then ensure we have enough pairs of boots to prevent issues.

Deciding who goes to what is largely the job of the control room who will allocate cars to incidents as soon as they’re sent across from the 999 operators.

Jobs involving violence or some other disturbance will usually attract pairs of officers, as some of those responding may well be patrolling single crewed then you may see the cars stacking up outside a neighbouring house giving the impression that something huge is happening whereas in reality, it’s simply down to the fact that officers have brought a car each.

When it comes to deploying the helicopter, probably our most visible bit of kit, its presence doesn’t necessarily mean there’s been a Holby City-style disaster, rather that officers on the ground have determined that asking for a flyover would likely help them spot something not visible at street level.

Metal thieves laying low on rooftops, criminals running off down footpaths or vulnerable people wondering through large open areas are all the sort of situations that may well involve us calling up the chopper.

As for who comes out to jobs, sometimes who might find that the type of unit arriving isn’t quite what you might expect.

I’ve heard recently firearms officers arriving at car accidents and police vans checking out trouble causing drunks in the town centre – this isn’t because they were specifically asked for, rather because the officers will have overheard jobs on the radio and volunteered to attend in the first instance because they may have been close by and are willing to help out until a more appropriate unit arrives.

So in short, the number of officers arriving at an incident doesn’t necessarily indicate that something major has happened and nor does the type of vehicle or officer that we send.

It’s all down to what’s happening on the day – it could be Godzilla on a rampage, equally so though it could be that another officer or two is needed to help with some traffic control.

The jobs where there has been a major incident with us calling in officers from far and wide – the bomb scares, large fires and serious road accidents as examples – usually attract a tweet or two from @WMPolice or one of the local feeds so if you’re ever curious to know what’s happening, check them out as they’re your best source of information.

You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout – I’m telling you why…

Christmas is just around the corner, are you prepared for a ‘reverse burglary’ by Santa Clause though? Read on!

Christmas time is here. Check out www.isitchristmas.com tomorrow and it’ll confirm as much – December 25th is only hours away and with it will almost certainly come a massive rise in strange ‘reverse burglaries’.

What exactly is a ‘reverse burglary’ you ask? Well, you may recall last year I featured several posts from Force CID’s DS Kimo on our attempts to capture a suspect known to us as ‘Santa Clause’.

First of all there was our appeal for witnesses which was followed by the arrest of Clause the very next day. We thought we had the case nailed but then on Christmas Eve there was shocking news – our suspect turned out to be an imposter and the real Clause was still at large.

We’d failed and the consequence was that Clause broke into millions of houses around the world over the next few hours, stealing small amounts of brandy but leaving behind high value goods under people’s Christmas trees.

One year on and whilst the operation to capture Clause is ongoing, it’s looking unlikely that he’ll be located before he strikes again this evening.

As this is the case, the best I can offer is a few Christmas crime prevention tips from DS Kimo on how you can best safeguard your house against a strike by Clause himself.

Here’s the advice from the man in the know:

• Hide the mince pies – Never leave small plates of mince pies and a glass of brandy on open display. We know that Clause pretty much lives off these and they’re as good as an invitation for him to come in and wreak havoc.
• Block your chimney – Any hardware store should be able to supply the tools you’ll need to ensure that the chimney is not accessible. This is essential as 99% of the time Clause gains access to properties by the chimney.
• Throw away your ‘Santa Stop Here’ sign – At any other time of year would you put up a sign welcoming burglars? Of course not, don’t encourage the jolly fat man!
• Obstruct his landing strip – All available intel suggests that Santa reaches rooftops by using a magical sleigh drawn by reindeer. Litter your rooftop with barriers to frustrate his landing and maybe slop a little anti-vandal paint around too.
• Know what to look for – We believe Clause usually wears a bright red suit with white fur lining and heavy boots, he shouldn’t be hard to spot.
• Listen out - As well as wearing a bright red suit, Santa seems to have trouble keeping the noise down. If he’s nearby you will probably be able to hear him laughing loudly and encouraging his reindeer to take flight.
• Don’t write to him – Clause operates in a strange way, he seems to receive letters sent to him up the chimney and then a few weeks later arrives with many of the requested items. Don’t make it easy for him, if he doesn’t know what you want he may not come in the first place.

Now I’m on duty this evening on a special ‘Santa watch’ team so we’ll be keeping our eyes open for any Clause-related activity in the Walsall area and we’ll need you to do the same.

If you do suspect that you’ve seen Clause, please get in touch with me via Twitter and I’ll see what I can do about sending a car or two over.

Beyond this stay safe and have a very merry Christmas!

Rich

It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark…

Assuming you’re reading this at any time after half four in the afternoon, it’s probably getting dark outside. You may be reading sat up in the Arctic Circle, in which case it’s probably dark all the time, but either way, let’s say night is a-falling.

Here in West Midlands Police, the end of British Summertime is as big an event for us as the Winter Solstice is to Pagans.

We don’t exactly break out the flaming torches and dance around stone circles but even so, we do out best to prepare our public for the rise in burglaries that can be encouraged by the darker nights.

It’s because of these dark nights that each year we run our cunningly-named ‘Darker Nights’ campaign, with the aim of informing people about the steps that we recommend to help them beat the burglar.

By checking out the Darker Nights section of our own website, you can find all the information you should need to help ensure that your home is as burglar proof as it can be.

The tips offered don’t involve setting complicated, Home Alone style traps – rather they’re simple, easy pointers such as leaving a light on when you go out, all of which make it more likely that the burglar will pass your house by when he (or she) is out on the prowl for easy targets.

The Darker Nights campaign isn’t only about burglaries though, you can also find information about dealing with trick-or-treaters and if you fancy printing off a poster or two advising would be ghouls that you’d rather not have a visit, have a look at our Darker Nights gallery on Flickr.

The good people behind the Darker Nights campaign have summarised their advice in five easy steps to which I have added a handy ‘CRIME’ acronym*.

They are as follows -

• Close your curtains – Don’t advertise your possessions to the burglars, close your curtains and don’t leave laptops, phones etc on open display
• Register your valuables – Keep a list of the serial numbers of all your valuables – take a look at www.immobilise.com where you can register items for free
• Illuminate your house – You know how in Home Alone, Kevin put the cardboard cut out of the basketball player on a model train so it looked like the house was occupied? Maybe that’s going a little far but leave a light on when you’re out so that it’s not obvious your pad is unattended – consider a timer switch too
• Make your house secure – Lock your doors and your windows, no matter how small they are
• Enable your alarm – Got a burglar alarm? Make sure you know how it works and that it’s used, if you don’t have one then consider getting one or at the very least, installing a dummy alarm box somewhere visible

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, for may have seen previous posts about crime prevention and what steps, as a front line officer, I’d recommend you consider taking to avoid becoming a victim.

It’s been a while since some of them were published so if you have a few minutes to spare, please take a butchers at the following crime prevention related posts -

• Part one and part two of my anti-burglary posts from July last year
• From April this year, a post about CCTV cameras
• Going back to July last year again, this post about registering your valuables
• This post about cold callers and why it’s important that you phone us if you’re suspicious
• And from this September, a post about backing up your computer to ensure your files aren’t lost should it be stolen

Finally, with Autumn soon to exchange the ‘seasons baton’ with Winter, temperatures will drop and Jack Frost will begin icing up up everything in sight.

As this is the case, please check out this blog from last Winter about why I’d recommend not leaving your cat unattended to defrost.

Yes, I do mean cat.

* Thanks to the dozens of people on Twitter and Facebook who helped me out with the final letter for the CRIME acronym, you are incredible and can all consider yourselves special deputies!

Everything’s not lost…

Computers are smaller than they were in 1999 but this means they’re easier to steal too. Backing up your data is essential!

The other day I’d been thinking about how I could possibly top my blog about lions (I can’t) and had a brief notion that I might try and write something about how important it is to back up your computer, lest it gets nicked and you lose all your data.

Today I’d been sent to a burglary in Walsall and after the victim realised their laptop was missing, the first thing they then said – as many people I’ve met in the past have done – is that all of their holiday photos were gone.

As such I resolved to sit down that very evening and give a few tips on how to back up your computer to ensure that if worst comes to worst and it does get stolen, or even meet a sticky end with a glass of Tizer, that you’re not at a sentimental loss.

Here we are then – the fruit of my typing, a blog post all about just that very subject!

First things first though, your house should be nice and secure because you’ve followed the tips on our Safer Homes website and made sure that you’re not an easy target for the thieves. Your laptop isn’t left in view, you close the curtains when you’re out and you might even have put up a dummy CCTV camera or two.

Furthermore you’ve registered the most valuable of your possessions on Immobilse. You have a record of serial numbers etc so that if we need to we can record them on our crimes computer and identify recovered goods as your own.

Assuming then that having take these steps, some desperate burglar still climbs into your home with a swag bag and does take your computer, what can you do to ensure that they don’t take your data too?

Your operating system likely has options to back up the data automatically to an external source. Here’s how to do it on Windows XP, Vista/Windows 7 and for all you counter culture free thinkers, OS X.

There are also a variety of free and not so free programs that can be downloaded through the interweb tubes that do similar things but in different ways, giving you more control over what is saved and when the back up takes place.

Backing up doesn’t have to be done through a special program though – the most straightforward way is simply to insert a disc, USB stick or external hard drive and copy any files you need to.

Once you’ve done so you need to do what I do – hide said device or disc somewhere that no one would ever think of looking so that you know it’s safe.

Cursed burial grounds, magical lands found in wardrobes and Walsall Police FC’s trophy cabinet are all good places to hide your back up, in the middle of the floor, under the cat or in the kettle are not.

Getting into the habit of backing up your data regularly is always a good idea and as I’ve mentioned, many of the programs available can be scheduled to run automatically so that you don’t even have to remember to do it yourself.

If physical computer dongles aren’t your thing but clouds are, another good option is to use a service such as Dropbox or Norton 360, both of which allow you to upload data to their servers where it is safe by virtue of being stored in an air conditioned bunker somewhere three thousand miles away.

Burglaries are one of the worst call outs that we get and it’s horrible to see people when they realise that they’ve lost all of the photos they’ve taken of their children over the past three years.

Don’t let it happen to you – please back it up!

P.S. There won’t be any new posts over the next few weeks as I’m off on my jolly holidays, usual service will resume upon my return. In the meantime please keep yourselves entertained by checking out one of my favourite websites, Cats For Gold.

Climbing up the walls…

An urban explorer perched at the top of the Shard building last year - was he breaking the law though? (Image from Silent UK)

An interesting story popped up in the news yesterday revealing that at some point last year a group of ‘urban explorers’ had visited the newly constructed Shard skyscraper in London.

This is all well and good you might think. Thing is, they’d visited it at night and without permission, they’d evaded security patrols and clambered all the way to the peak where they then scaled the crane at the building’s crown and took a few photos as proof of their reaching of the summit.

First of all as this is a police blog I’ve got to say that I wouldn’t recommend anyone try anything similar. As I’ll discuss below, such trespassing is against the law and not only this, can be pretty dangerous too. A fall from a construction site is unlikely to have worked out particularly well for the visitors and in the Shard’s case, the building has previously been occupied by foxes meaning they risked a mauling too.

The risks of being gobbled up by (presumably) hungry foxes aside, what does the law have to say about trespassing and is it something that you could get arrested for?

When it comes to entering another person’s land as a trespasser, the law you may be breaking is predominately a civil law. Us police officers deal with criminal law – the sort that can end you up in jail – and as such, we rarely are involved with civil matters other that to provide advice.

As walking onto another person’s property without permission, to give an example, is a civil concern, it is up to the owner of the land to take up a complaint in the civil courts if he or she seeks legal remedy. I’m not able to take my handcuffs out to deal with a trespasser as I don’t have the power to do so.

This said, it certainly isn’t the case that trespassing is exclusively a civil matter and there are several pieces of legislation that make trespassing a criminal offence under certain conditions.

The most obvious one is burglary which by definition is entering a building as a trespasser with the intention of stealing. This means that if you don a stripey top and clamber into someone’s property with the intention of filling your swag bag, you can expect a trip to the cells.

Other bits of legislation that make provisions for trespass to be a criminal offence include the Sexual Offences Act 2003, the Firearms Act 1968 and the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

Under Section 63 of the Sexual Offences Act it is an offence to trespass on premises with the intention of committing a sexual offence whilst on the premises. Section 20 of the Firearms Act makes it a criminal offence to trespass on land whilst in possession of a firearm and Section 61 of the Criminal Justice Act gives the police the power to deal with trespassers on land who have entered with the common purpose of residing there.

Perhaps the best source of criminal law in relation to trespassing though comes from Section 4 of the Vagrancy Act of 1824 relating to ‘persons committing certain offences to be deemed rogues and vagabonds’. We now refer to the offence created under this section as being ‘found on enclosed premises’ and means that it is against the law to be found on an enclosed premises (which would include climbing on a building) for an unlawful purpose.

Sticking with the Vagrancy Act for a moment, it also includes provisions to define ‘who shall be deemed incorrigible rogues’ and makes provisions granting to courts ‘power of sessions to detain and keep to hard labour, and punish by whipping rogues and vagabonds and incorrigible rogues’. I imagine these parts have since been repealed but probably best not risk it…

Urban exploration is an area of interest to myself and there are some excellent websites knocking around the internet showing the exploits of those who are keen to document abandoned buildings around the world.

If you’re interested, I’d recommend taking a peek at Subterranea Britannica and also at Abandoned Britain – both which have some great photos from sites that will likely be lost to history over the next few years.

When it comes to urban exploring, ‘building hacking’ or however you dress it, the most important consideration is that it is done lawfully and safely. I can appreciate that this strips the fun out of dodging the sweep of the security guard’s flashlight however it is a fair point – the law is clear on trespass and from the sounds of it, the Vagrancy Act is not one you’d want to cross!

We’re the stars of CCTV…

As you can see from the above video, criminals are an an ugly lot. They’re so unpleasant to look at that they don’t want to offend anyone else with their horrible looks and so often wear their hoodies done up as tightly as possible, dodge mirrors and in all cases avoid CCTV cameras like the plague.

CCTV is one of the best lines of investigation we as police have and one of the first questions an officer is likely to ask when attending an incident is ‘are there any cameras covering the area?’. Good quality footage is very hard to argue against and when shown images of their own faces during interview, even the slowest burglar is likely to recognise that denial of the offence is futile.

Because CCTV is so useful to us in solving crimes, should you consider a system for your home and if the answer is yes (see the below paragraph) then what’s the best advice for installing cameras and are there any legal considerations to take into account?

As you may have guessed, my advice would be that investing in a good CCTV system is one of the best steps you can take to protect your home from opportunistic miscreants. There are two main advantages – one, that footage of an offender is invaluable in the course of an investigation and two, that merely having visible cameras provides a powerful deterrent.

When I say ‘invest’, CCTV needn’t be expensive with a search on the site of a popular online retailer named after a large South American rainforest revealing that systems are available for as little as £60. Dummy cameras are even less.

The range of systems in mind, it’s always best to go for the highest specification kit in your price bracket as when it comes to CCTV footage the most important consideration is image quality. We often view recordings on lower end systems in which the offenders appear like spooky, misty ghosts who pop up in one frame and then are gone not even allowing us to take a clothing description. This is obviously little help to us.

Many systems offer capabilities such as night vision and motion sensors, record onto a hard drive and can be played back through a television. If you’re keen on your gadgets, some even can be connected to the internet meaning that you can access your CCTV from anywhere in the world and view footage live on a computer or smart phone.

As for where you position the cameras, this is a choice limited by how many cameras you have at your disposal however if you only have one or two I’d be tempted to prioritise the rear of your property as many break ins occur with offenders gaining entry through rear or side facing windows and doors.

How well overlooked your house is will make a difference to where you might want to position your cameras with the idea being that criminals are going to be attracted to the entry points not overlooked and so this is where your cameras are best placed. If you have a front drive and particularly if you have some nice motors sitting on said drive, a camera covering your cars is always a good bet too.

With the system installed and the cameras recording the next thing you’ll need to do is to make sure that you know how to access the footage itself. You may be surprised at how often, both in private houses and shops, people will have excellent CCTV but no idea how to view it and even less knowledge of how to burn a copy to a disc.

As it seems to be an unwritten law that every CCTV system must run on different software and has to record in a different format, it’s really helpful to us that the person with the cameras knows how it works and has some discs available to make us a copy of the footage.

The other important thing is that the time is right on your time stamp. I’ve lost track of how often I’ve struggled to work out what time frame we need to be reviewing when the system is set incorrectly. It’s usually the case of “Well, your camera is one hour and forty two minutes fast, that clock over there is six hours and eight minutes slow and with the clocks going back an hour at 02:00 last night I think we need to set the date for around about 17:59 on 03/06/1996 and watch from there” – confusing!

What about the law though? Are CCTV cameras installed at home covered by any legislation and could you get into trouble by installing cameras?

First of all, whilst businesses have to comply with the principles of the Data Protection Act the same does not apply to people using CCTV for purely ‘domestic purposes’ at home. This means you don’t have to put up signs warning others that you’re using cameras and don’t – unless you really want to – have to assign someone to be the ‘data controller’ or ‘data king’. It also means there’s not an issue if your camera covers part of a public street.

What you do need to do though is to bare in mind that your neighbours have a right to privacy and so you can’t infringe on that right by, for example, directing a camera right at their house. This could be seen as an violation of their right to privacy under the Human Rights Act and potentially could also form the basis of a harassment complaint.

The other legal consideration – civil this time – is whether you need planning permission for your cameras. This mainly applies to any of you reading this blog from inside a castle or stately home. Planning permission is only something you’re likely to need if you live in a listed building or a conservation area so if you do, check with your council before sorting out camera coverage for your moat.

CCTV regularly forms an important part of the case against all sorts of criminal activities and so can be an invaluable weapon in both the prevention, and detection, of crime.

Setting yourself up with a decent system is a sure step to ensuring that the criminals’ ugly faces end up where they belong – on film and then behind bars.

I will follow you into the dark…

A sophisticated system of satellites means even distant corners of the planet, like Aldridge, are covered by GPS.

The other week a very interesting job came in over the radio. There’d been a report of a potential robbery that had just happened in the town centre during which someone had their phone stolen. As we do for any robbery all response units converged on the area and began searching for the offenders.

What was remarkable was that as we approached the town centre with our sirens blaring and blue lights flashing, the control room began to broadcast updates on the location of the phone. At first I thought they might be watching the offenders on CCTV but then it became apparent what was actually happening – the victim had installed on his phone a tracking application and so was able to relay the phone’s position to the 999 operator*.

This meant that rather than having a large search area that expanded exponentially with each minute that went past, we could focus on where the phone was likely to be and so greatly increase the chances of both recovering it and arresting the offenders.

Whilst in this case the phone lost signal just before officers converged on its location, the usefulness of the tracker showed what a benefit such applications can be to helping defeat the bad guys.

This applies not only in catching them immediately after an incident, but also to recovering property at a later point. Pinpointing your device’s location, for example, may be enough for us to be able to apply for a search warrant and go bashing in doors with our big red key.

If you own a phone made by a popular type of fruit I’d recommend installing the Find My iPhone app which allows you to both locate, message and even remotely wipe a stolen device. Even without the app installed, you can still log into iCloud to display your phone’s location remotely.

Other similar services are available for BlackBerry, Android and Windows phones allowing users to instantly locate their phones and often are free to use.

Alongside installing and learning how to use the location services on offer, as I’ve written about before the first thing you should do when you come into possession of any new toy – be it a twig, a fancy phone or a nice watch – is to register it for free on Immobilise. Record serial numbers, take photos and then upload it to the site so that we can identify and return property when it’s recovered.

New technology provides us with new ways to help fight crime and can often help in unexpected ways. Not too long ago a man in Sussex was able to provide officers with a picture of a potential suspect after photos taken on his stolen iPad were automatically sent to him following the theft.

At the same time, prevention is better than cure and so whilst we’re assisted by GPS satellites whizzing overhead and other similarly high-tech stuff, it’s always best keep your possessions out of sight and not let yourself be a victim in the first place.

* Actually in this example the chain of communication was even more complicated – as the victim obviously didn’t have a phone himself, he had to contact his family via a telephone box who accessed the location of his stolen mobile remotely from their computer. As they lived in another county they spoke to their local police who in turn sent the information to our control room who in turn sent it to us. It was West Midlands Police meets 24!

He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake…

Via West Midlands Police Press Releases –

Serial mince pie and carrot thief, enters houses via chimney. Can you help identify him?

December 19th 2011

WEST MIDLANDS POLICE are appealing for information from members of the public ahead of an anticipated series of burglaries across the region and further afield, predicted to take place on the night of December 24th.

Working with several other police forces under the supervision of Scotland Yard and liaising with Interpol, detectives are keen to track a male who they believe picks Christmas Eve and the early hours of Christmas Day to break into houses up and down the country in what has been termed a ‘sophisticated and well planned attack’.

Intelligence gathered from a range of sources suggests that as in previous years, the male will attempt to gain access to properties via the chimney having landed on the rooftop in what eye witnesses have described as a vehicle similar to a sleigh and drawn by a number of animals, possibly reindeer.

Police E-Fit of the suspect

Once inside the male follows the same peculiar MO, placing high value goods under the victim’s Christmas tree before stealing small quantities of brandy, mince pies and carrots. The male then exits the house again via the chimney before moving onto neighbouring properties and has been known to target whole towns or even counties during the course of a single night.

The wanted male is described as being in his late sixties, around 5’8″ tall and has a plump build with a ruddy, red cheeked complexion. He has a thick white beard and is said to commonly wear a distinctive red suit with white trim, heavy black boots and a pointed red hat with white bobble. Whilst believed to be silent when inside people’s houses, the male is apparently quite vocal whilst on rooftops as he has been heard saying in a friendly, booming voice phrases such as ‘Ho Ho Ho!’ and ‘Merry Christmas Everyone!’.

DS Kimo, from WMP Force CID, said “We are keen to speak to this male as soon as possible and would urge him to attend the nearest police station at the earliest opportunity’.

Homeowners are should remain vigilant in the nights leading up to Christmas Day and are advised not to leave plates of mince pies on open display. Should the male be spotted, residents are encouraged to phone the international operator straight away and ask to be put through to the Santa Taskforce in Lapland.

ENDS