When four Seattle-area men launched the Web site postacrime.com in late June, it was designed for small-business owners to post surveillance video and photos of thieves free of charge. The four creators saw the site as a YouTube for crime prevention, says the Seattle Times. The site’s intention is to identify the suspects and help police. The site has been slow to catch on, with only a few business owners posting. The site currently has items that are widely distributed on the Web – photos of bank robbers sought by the FBI, police mug shots from across the nation and daily crime reports released by the city of Bellevue.
Ben Sharpe, a postacrime.com creator, hopes to include crime photos and video from block-watch groups and victims. The site, which Sharpe says gets about 7,000 hits each month, includes crimes from Georgia, Texas, and California. A Bellevue police spokesman is not pleased that the information the department is releasing – details about assaults, robberies, burglaries and other call-outs – is being posted. He said the department likes to release the information, not have it posted on someone’s site.
Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003923707_postacrime04m.html