Facebook helps North police nab crims

Social media is proving a powerful crime-fighting and information-sharing tool for Northland police.

A police Facebook page is nabbing up to five criminals a week and notching up a success rate of about 95 per cent, a top Far North cop says.

Social media has turned into an everyday crime-fighting tool since it was pioneered in the North by Houhora Senior Constable Tracee Knowler, who shot to national prominence when she used Facebook to catch the so-called Buttcrack Bandit.

It has also proved invaluable for sharing information quickly with large numbers of people, for example during the July floods when police used it to update motorists on weather conditions, hazards and road closures. Firm numbers of how many crimes have been solved with help from Northland's online community are hard to come by but the anecdotal evidence is impressive.

Senior Sergeant Chris McLellan said the Northland police page was averaging five arrests a week and had a success rate of about 95 per cent. A typical post was viewed 10,000 times, received 30-40 comments and prompted 3-4 calls to the Crimestoppers tip line.

"Social media gives us the ability to reach a lot of people, very quickly, at the push of a button," he said.

The page was often used to identify suspects captured on security cameras. In the fastest result to date, police had the name of a Mangonui woman a little over two hours after posting a CCTV image of her shoplifting at a supermarket.

The biggest response came after the aggravated robbery of a Kaitaia bakery. The police Facebook post was viewed 15,000 times - three times the population of Kaitaia - and widely shared on social media.

Mr McLellan said police received "multiple names from multiple sources".

The information led to the arrest of an 18-year-old Peria woman, who allegedly used the bakery's own knives to commit the June 29 robbery.

A post last week about a shoplifting incident led to 5150 views, 44 comments and three calls to Crimestoppers. The offender called police within four hours after hearing her photo was on Facebook, Mr McLellan said.

Facebook was a powerful crime-fighting and information-sharing tool but it also had downsides. Police had to keep monitoring the page for derogatory comments and had to be mindful of people's privacy.

The www.facebook.com/NorthlandPolice page currently has 6022 likes.