SMS snitch pilot targets knife crime in schools

A plan to use SMS to combat youth knife crime is being trialled in schools in East London. The text pilot enables youngsters to anonymously report classmates or other youths they suspect of carrying knives to anti-crime charity Crimestoppers UK.

The text informant scheme has been running for around a week in three schools in Tower Hamlets and is likely to continue until the end of the summer term. If successful, the plan is for the service to be rolled out to schools across the Capital and potentially even nationwide.

A wave of knife crime violence has claimed the lives of scores of teenagers in London this year, which is why the pilot is focused on gaining information about youths with knives, said Crimestoppers.

Posters (see image below) urge children to text details of potential offenders, such as their name, nickname, school and year. Talks and/or workshops are also conducted in the target schools to ensure children are fully informed.

Photo credit: Crimestoppers UK

Crimestoppers UK bureau manager and VP of Crime Stoppers International, Michael Gordon-Gibson, described text as the ideal medium to engage young people in the fight against crime.

He said in a statement: "SMS is a fantastic way to reach out to this demographic. It's easily accessible and provides young people with peace of mind given the complete anonymity of the service."

Any information received by text informants is assessed by Crimestoppers UK before potentially being passed on to police.

The charity said the pilot is small-scale as it wants to determine whether misuse of the system is likely to be a problem - for instance, by kids attempting to get innocent classmates into trouble - although it stressed that to-date there have been no problems reported. It will also conduct a review of the scheme once the pilot concludes.

The system is a joint venture between mobile transaction network mBlox and Anderson Software, LLC, which makes software apps for law enforcement, US Homeland Security and emergency management industries.

Text messages sent to the Crimestoppers UK number are encrypted and routed through a secure server so informants' details remain anonymous, according to the companies. The pair said the system could also be used as a more general anti-crime tool, to enable citizens to report less serious criminal activity such as vandalism.