MEMBERS of the public can now help fight crime from their phone thanks to the launch of a new ‘app’ featuring the faces of crime suspects.

The ‘Facewatch’ application allows smart-phone and tablet users to view CCTV of people wanted by West Midlands Police whilst on the move – and anonymously submit names of people they believe may be involved or other information about the crime.

Almost 200 images have been uploaded to Facewatch during a pilot stage – resulting in nine arrests – but the mobile app is expected to be populated with a growing number of wanted faces as more regional businesses embrace the system.

That’s because companies can also use Facewatch as an instant crime reporting tool which allows them to electronically provide CCTV pictures of suspects, plus crime details, to detectives within minutes.

It’s a development expected to save West Midlands Police countless hours of officer time previously spent visiting businesses, and securing, processing and formatting security camera footage.

West Midlands Police Assistant Chief Constable Garry Forsyth, said: “It’s an exciting development: this new technology helps us save time and money and enables us to offer a better service to local businesses. It’s a very useful tool in our fight against business crime.

“In addition, the mobile ID app means members of the public can help us identify crime suspects. The app allows them to search for suspects within a certain radius of a given location, perhaps their home or work address, and view their images.

“The system has already proved hugely successful in London where during the first few months of its launch the app had 100,000 downloads and images were viewed more than 8.5 million times!

“I’m hoping people will also embrace the system in the West Midlands – taking a moment to look at the app when they have some spare time – and help us combat crime.”

The NEC is already using Facewatch to alert police to criminality within the exhibition halls or car-parks, and it’s expected retail centres, transport providers and entertainment facilities, right through to small corner shops, will also adopt the crime reporting system.

Crime reports submitted via Facewatch are instantly sent to a police contact centre and passed to the appropriate investigation team; officers can then access full details of the crime from their desktop whilst automatic update emails are sent to the victim.

And officers have populated Facewatch with images of thief suspects – including the faces of 38 pick pockets, table ‘surfers’ and purse dippers recently uploaded by Birmingham Police’s dedicated theft team – in the hope app users will recognise them.

West Midlands Police & Crime Commissioner Bob Jones, said: “Facewatch is an excellent example of how we can use technology to work more efficiently with business partners and the community. This will free up considerable police officer and staff time currently spent on having to collect CCTV footage from businesses across the West Midlands.”

The application is free to download on iPhones, iPads, BlackBerry and Android devices. It can also be accessed directly via a web browser at www.facewatchid.co.uk.