Shop a criminal with your mobile
In the future, witnesses to crimes may simply be able to report wrongdoing by uploading videos taken from their mobile phones. According to Ian Readhead, director of information for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), the technology to allow such reporting is already being looked at by the force.
"In future it is not bizarre to think that people will not just contact the police to say there is a robbery happening but will say 'Can I send you through the video?...
It is not unreasonable to think that the service will change its capabilities to receive this sort of information from the public. That is the sort of tech developments that the service is looking at and considering how we would make those investments."
Police now routinely check YouTube to gather evidence during criminal investigations. "Certain criminal activity can now be posted on YouTube far quicker than we would find it ourselves."
An interesting examples of how the way we use our mobile phones is influencing the police service.