New app can track sightings of criminals

A new system, which may be introduced this year, promises to be able to track sightings of suspected roaming criminals nationwide.

Community development organisation Muintir na Tíre said it hopes, in the longer term, to set up an all-island system using the smartphone technology.

The organisation piloted a new mobile app in West Cork and is currently in discussions with gardaí with the aim of setting up a national system.

The development emerged at the launch of a report, Community Policing and Rural Crime, by the Oireachtas Justice Committee.

Muintir na Tíre chief executive Niall Garvey said the app would enable the “tracking of alerts around the country”.

He said with text alerts, local people can report sightings of suspect vehicles to gardaí, who decide to issue a text alert to group members.

However, Mr Garvey said the 700 text alert groups were self-contained within a local area and unconnected.

He said the app, called Cairde, allows Muintir na Tíre to track texts:

We can now see, in real time, the alerts coming in and what they relate to, and spot patterns. If there is a vehicle registration number being reported in one parish and 10 minutes later reported in another we can see that and do ‘hot spotting’.

Mr Garvey said local gardaí cannot see texts sent out by other garda districts.

He said Muintir na Tíre are currently unable to share the information because of data protection issues that they “need to go through” but said they are “almost ready to roll it out”.

He added: “We are talking to gardaí about how they want to receive the information.”