By Dale Boyd
In the fast-developing world of social technology, the best crime fighting app is still calling 911, according to the South Okanagan’s top cop.
Billed as a crime fighting app, Lightcatch has become popular in the South Okanagan, specifically Penticton, but RCMP are not monitoring the live, real-time reports.
The mobile phone app, started by Grand Prairie man Darren Boyer, has garnered praise from Boyer’s local RCMP and he claimed 42 vehicles were recovered during the first phase of testing the app.
Lightcatch allows users to alert others using the app about nearby potential crime or thefts using a real-time map of the area.
“It started in Alberta and there were some good comments from the police and I have nothing really wrong with that,” said Ted De Jager, Officer in Charge of the South Okanagan RCMP. “Our official engagement tool is Block Watch or Crimestoppers.”
He called the app an updated, modern version of those programs, essentially a digital Block Watch, however De Jager’s concern is the lack of connection with encrypted RCMP databases.
“Lightcatch is never going to talk to an RCMP system, not currently. A year, 10 years, whatever, they will have the technology to make sure that it can’t breach, but there’s never going to be connection between the secure RCMP system, which is our dispatch system, and a third-party app,” De Jager said.
If someone does see a crime in progress, De Jager used the common occurrence of a bike theft, there may be benefits to the community to reporting incidents occurring, but the police still need to be in the loop.
“How do you get that to police without phoning?” De Jager said. “You’ve got to call 911, that’s the issue.” (Online RCMP reporting is in the works at the moment.)
While the RCMP will use evidence gathered from apps like Lightcatch, or from social media sites, in their investigations, police officers are not monitoring the app.
“To monitor all the different sites, I would need five (RCMP) members to do that,” De Jager said. “I don’t want to say that we don’t, we do if we have a need to do that, and we may have a member who is on Lightcatch and see that. It could work, but that’s an off-chance.”
De Jager said he is for anything that connects neighbours and neighbourhoods, helping communities work together to curb crime, but the connection to the police is necessary as well.
Incidents reported on Lightcatch which are not followed up with by RCMP will not end up in crime tracking databases used by police either.
“If it is about looking for criminals then make sure that you have that connection to police and once you see something you don’t try to take the law into your own hands,” De Jager said.
“Anything in progress is a 911 call,” De Jager said. “Chances are remote that we would be monitoring (Lightcatch) at that time.”
