The Crime Star

During last year's London riots, the officers at Scotland Yard received advice from the New York Police Department on how to tackle crime related to riots.

The decision to obtain advice from NYPD was taken by Prime Minister David Cameron. He was criticized by the members of the Parliament and the Police community. The NY Police chief said, compared to what happens in New York, the London riot is nothing. It is said there are 400 underworld gangs operating in New York city alone. London has only 25 to 30.

The NYPD chief said the gun crime in London is less in contrast to New York. But recently, the London and New York gangs have joined through the internet to enhance their criminal activities across the Atlantic. It is evident that the gun and knife crimes are on the rise on both sides of the sea.

There is a BBC programme called 'Crime Watch' in the UK. It shows recent incidents of murders, robberies, thefts and muggings with pictures of the fraudsters. The programme helps to reignite the memory of witnesses which makes it easy to solve crimes. They construct the scene of the incident using witness statements and CCTV cameras. It shows the faces of the suspects and pictures of similar cars used in the crime. Most of the time, the roles of victims are done by actors. At the end of the programme it receives hundreds of telephone calls giving the names, addresses and the movements of the suspects. Some suspects are arrested the same night. The Scotland Yard has solved many crimes using this method.

The suggestion of the NYPD chief who arrived in London for advice was to publish photographs of underworld kingpins. He said they have experienced a huge reduction of underworld crimes using that method.

By showing their faces on posters and TV will make them stay away from further crimes. The main advice he gave was to post pictures of the members of 10 most dangerous underworld gangs on the TV and internet.

If Sri Lankan TV channels can bring this method, it will be useful in solving crimes. The UK Crime Watch programme came to my mind recently due to a crime faced by a close friend who lives in Colombo. Their house was burgled during daytime when they both were at work. They didn't realize what has been taken until his wife went to the bank to withdraw some money.

Their savings account had been drained by withdrawals from ATMs in and around Colombo. Only then did they remember that their bank card was missing. Unfortunately, they had left the card with the secret PIN.

The couple went to the area Police station to complain. A few weeks later the bank called them and asked to come in to show some images of the thief captured on ATM cameras in some branches.

The couple went to the bank with the Police officer who took down the complaint. They went through the images but could not recognize the person. On their way back the Police officer asked my friend to call him if he sees the culprit on the road.

He also told him that if he catches the thief he will call my friend. That was the end of that crime inquiry.

But there is a place to get help. That is our Ministry of Defence. There should be a way of publishing photographs of culprits using popular media. A programme similar to Super Star, Mega Star and Dancing Star should be produced and called Crime Star. Then we will be able to catch not only the person who stole money from the ATM but the burglar who entered the house too.

The method "if you see him tell me" and "if I see him I will tell you," is not good enough for a crime free society.