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Home 2012 February

ET phone home: Smartphones and crime prevention

Published on 27 February 2012 by in Social Media Innovation

  One of the downsides about any form of new technology is that it is inevitably expensive and attractive to thieves. Over the years, burglars have focused on Video Recorders, DVD players and, now, Flatscreen TVs. Car thieves have moved from car radios via CD players on to SatNavs, although even those are no longer of sufficient value to interest most opportunists. In the same way, the advent of mobile phones has been responsible for a sharp increase in the number of muggings, mainly with young people as both perpetrators and victims. This particular crimewave has been revitalised over the last couple of years by the launch of expensive smartphones such as the iPhone, Samsung Galaxy etc. These, along with Tablet computers, retain very high re-sale value and are therefore very robber-friendly. What got me thinking about this was a helpful conversation

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Why the Drugs Intervention Programme is no longer fit for purpose

Published on 23 February 2012 by in Offender/Drug user health

The Drugs Intervention Programme (DIP) which seeks to engage drug using offenders into treatment at every point of the criminal justice system is due for a shakeup this April – and about time too. The DIP was introduced in 2003 with the purpose of identifying drug users in police stations in courts and prisons, get them into drug treatment and provide them with a case management service through the arrest-charge-court-prison-release process. The DIP was heavily resourced to the tune of approximately £150million per year and had a very positive impact in two main ways: It succeeded in identifying large numbers of drug using offenders who had never been in contact with treatment services. It stimulated a substantial expansion in quick access services – typically those prescribing methadone as a heroin substitute. Commissioners quickly realised that they would lose the opportunity to

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PbR Question Time

Published on 17 February 2012 by in Payment by Results

There has been growing media coverage of Payment by Results schemes since the New Year, both here and abroad (particularly the USA, Canada and Australia). I’ve updated the free to download PbR resource pack three times this week already. There has been a proliferation of schemes with many scheduled to start delivery in 2012. The PbR approach brings fundamental changes to the way Government Departments commission and pay for public services. This has led to speculation and discussion of a wide range of issues on this Blog and elsewhere, particularly around payment mechanisms and potential private-statutory-voluntary sector partnerships. However, blogging has one main drawback – most visitors are much more interested in reading posts than commenting on them with the majority of debates taking place offline. This blog is pretty typical. It’s had over 5,000 different visitors since its launch in September

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Could your Facebook profile get you acquitted?

Published on 9 February 2012 by in Social Media Innovation

Facebook has become a key tool in police investigations. Police routinely access suspects’ Facebook pages to look at recent activities and establish connections between offenders or offender and victim. Facebook helps police make arrests. Tracking on Facebook can often help police anticipate a wanted person’s whereabouts and expedite arrest. Facebook is the reason for collapse of a growing number of prosecutions. However, the use of Facebook by victims and witnesses has resulted in many identity parades being declared inadmissible in court. Facebook is a mixed blessing for law enforcement All new technologies prompt a renewal of the battle between law enforcement agencies and the criminals they seek to detect, arrest and prosecute. The advent of social media has resulted in a period of rapid adaptation in both detection and avoidance techniques. So powerful has Facebook become as an investigation tool

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Second Commandment of PbR: First do no harm

Published on 6 February 2012 by in Offender/Drug user health, Payment by Results

The interesting thing about PbR schemes is that they are supposed to be all about finding creative solutions to entrenched social problems which actually work. But when you look at most of the articles and opinion pieces, you find they are much more preoccupied with how to measure the results accurately and prevent provider organisations from gaming the system. That’s why the First Commandment of Payment by Results schemes is “thou shall not pay twice”. PbR schemes are carefully designed not to pay for outcomes that would have happened anyway. Sometimes this preoccupation goes too far and the concern about measuring outcomes accurately interferes with the operation of the project itself. To my mind the Kent Drug Recovery PbR pilot is a case in point. The pilot has been thoughtfully designed so that only one quarter of the provider’s income

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Don’t delay! Post 999

Published on 1 February 2012 by in Digital Engagement

The recent publicity campaigns promoting the new 101 Police telephone number have all been at pains to emphasise that the number should not be used in an emergency. But 999 (911 in the USA, 000 in Australia) is not the only way to contact Police in an emergency. Indeed, the US Government has started to put in a place a system which allows members of the public to text or send multi-media messages to call for help. Recently, I have come across a number of stories of people using Facebook to contact the police in an emergency. Some of these stories are bizarre, as Facebook police stories often are. For instance, a 29-year-old woman in Minnesota posted to Facebook in January this year that she was being threatened with a gun. Her Facebook friends picked up on this and called

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Paying for your drink

Published on 14 February 2012 by in Offender/Drug user health, Payment by Results

“Offenders with drink problems face US-style tagging“ “London’s Drunk Criminals Wear Tags That Track Sobriety“ “Sobriety bracelets’ to fight crime in London” Just a selection of some of the newspaper headlines this weekend, typically accompanied by pictures of Lindsay Lohan, reporting the latest populist schemes to tackle alcohol-related crime – tagging offenders with “sobriety bracelets”. The bracelets monitor blood alcohol levels electronically and transmit results to a base station every 30 minutes. If offenders wearing the bracelet drink alcohol, they are liable for arrest. The stories themselves are confusing because they mix up details for two different schemes: one in London, one in Scotland; one aimed at repeat low level offenders and one at those convicted of more serious alcohol-related crime. Even a careful reading of Boris Johnson’s official press release fails to clarify the details of the London pilot. I

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© Russell Webster 2011/12