Perth Best Online Neighbourhood Watch on Facebook

Well, we don't live in a world of superheroes but quite often the best help one can get is a community that is willing to help each other out. Facebook has one of the highest adoption rates in Australia that most parts of the world and that has led to some interesting ways Australians build community over the internet.  Recently, we started a page on Facebook as well.

With the recent axing of Neighbourhood Watch, Perth has come up with a crime fighting nemesis using Facebook to tackle crime. Perth WA Crime Reports is a Facebook group that encourages people to share information about crimes that have happened in their area such as break ins, road rage, assaults and suspicious activity. This has resulted in some crimes being solved such as stolen vehicles being spotted in another part of the city, or people recognising offenders in CCTV footage that is posted.

There are over 65,000 people watching the page from around Perth and the world and tonight, the page is going to be featured on mainstream media for the first time. Channel 9 will be doing a story on the page at 6pm and not to be outdone, Channel 7 Today Tonight will also be running a story about it. If you are not on Perth WA Crime Reports, head over to Facebook and sign up.

There are other pages always starting on Facebook to combat crime. We also created a Perth Crime Map on Google Maps which allows people to plot criminal incidents on a map of Perth.

Remember with all of these, the first resort should always be to call WA Police

• 000 - for life threatening emergencies
• 131 444 - for police to attend immediately
• 1800 333 000 - for information relating to a crime that you would like to report.

If you came across this post following the reports on channel 7 and 9 let us know what you think in the comments below. See you on Perth WA Crime Reports!