Riverina police are warning businesses to think again before publishing CCTV footage. Photo: Nudphon Phuengsuwan.
Riverina police have warned local businesses posting CCTV footage of alleged crimes being committed to social media that such action could potentially derail future legal proceedings.
Recently, some Wagga shop owners have taken to Facebook to post videos of alleged thieves in action, hoping to deter shoppers from snatching items or to identify the alleged perpetrator.
The move has split residents, with some believing publicly shaming alleged thieves to be a justifiable response, while others claim it’s an infringement of the rights of those who have not been convicted of a crime.
Shoe repair store Cobbler Rd has been one outlet that has posted videos of alleged thieves to social media.
However, a weekend post on its Facebook page [which was later deleted] showing a woman allegedly taking a handbag provoked a heated discussion.
“This lady is obviously suffering from some type of mental illness. You should have called the police and showed them the footage, everything after that is unacceptable and unnecessary,” Facebook user Bek Carins said.
“Enough is enough, we are not going to let this continue,” the official Cobbler Rd account replied.
The move to post alleged offenders online hasn’t sat well with the Crime Manager of the Riverina Police, Detective Inspector Brent Falkiner, who said it could impede official court proceedings if people were named and shamed beforehand.
“I encourage the community to report the crime to us directly or to Crime Stoppers,” Mr Falkiner said.
“Posting any sensitive information or images about a crime would compromise any potential investigation of legal proceedings, and we wouldn’t want any cases of vigilantes taking matters into their own hands either by identifying people and posting it online.”
Mr Falkiner also said there was a level of risk to having the addresses of private property becoming common knowledge when posting CCTV footage online, especially suburban residences.
Despite a surge in online posts from Wagga stores publicly shaming alleged thieves via CCTV footage, Riverina police insist there has been no increase in reported theft.
“We’ve run a lot of operations, particularly last year with prevention officers who work with local businesses now,” Mr Falkiner said.
“It’s a proactive crime team who get out there and who actively work to specifically target these thefts from retail stores.
“We had incredible amounts of success last year and we are confident that if we can keep open lines of communication with store owners we can have another successful year in 2025.”
Region reached out to the owners of Cobbler Rd for comment regarding its most recent postings. The owners declined to do so, citing concerns over the safety of their staff.
Loading ...
