Forget the truncheon, use your cameraphone

IF, AS Waleli's Lawrence Masle claims, more than half the European population now carry a cameraphone, then a new crime busting application, MMS-witness, should catch on fast.

Waleli's idea is to harness the power of picture messaging (MMS) to catch the crooks. A witness sends a photo or video from the cameraphone using MMS-witness which then goes straight into a crime database.

Such photography could then be sent to police officers sent to investigate the crime - hopefully increasing the chances of an arrest.

Dutch software house Waleli has been working with police in Amsterdam to test the system out. At this stage it is the police themselves who are taking the pictures and storing them in a database.

If the plan goes ahead then it should be possible to establish a Europe-wide number for MMS-witness. The general public will be provided with a memorable number - such as 999 or 112 - to which all witness messages can be sent.

To get people in the mood, Waleli has even shot its own video of how the system should work. View it on your PC here.

Given that Garner has estimated that there are 295 million cameraphones already out there, that's an awful lot of potential crime scene photographers. µ

L'INQ
Waleli