Crowdsourcing crime prevention is an expanding business
In normal circumstances crime doesn't pay but in the case of the start-up Internet Eyes, shoplifting is proving lucrative.
The company, based at the Pool Innovation Centre, has devised an ingenious way of crowdsourcing crime prevention and business is expanding.
The service provides live streaming of CCTV footage from stores and businesses throughout the UK and Europe to be watched by alert citizens in their homes.
If someone spots a thief or something suspicious, they press an alert that sends an email with a link to a video recording of the event to the business owner.
More than 8,000 subscribers each pay £1.99 a month to watch footage from more than 100 locations and collectively spot around 30 suspicious events each day.
If a thief is apprehended, the 'spotter' is awarded up to £250 for their vigilance.
The service is the idea of businessman Tony Morgan, 66, who took nearly five years and £100,000 to find the technical solution.
Mr Morgan, who runs a B&B in Dawlish, Devon, says he thought of the idea when listening to a radio programme on shoplifting.
"I thought, 'Why can't we link CCTV to people's homes where they could watch and detect crime?'"
The ethos of Internet Eyes is real-time pro-active crime prevention that extends the Neighbourhood Watch principle into the digital world.
"We're preventing crime," Mr Morgan says. "We have a sticker on the door of each participating business saying 'Internet Eyes patrols this store; you are being remotely viewed'.
"CCTV has been around for a long time, but nobody thinks it's a deterrent, because it's never watched.
"Each subscriber is given only a 10-minute feed from each location to prevent viewers from gaining intelligence that could be used in a robbery.
"This is to stop anyone looking at a shop, seeing what time they cash up, what time they go to the bank - but if you see someone stealing, you get an extra five minutes.
"Subscribers don't know which shop they're watching. The chances of you recognising the shop are very remote.
"We're only about detecting crime. It's not a voyeuristic site. No one can watch CCTV of a shop unless they're more than 30 miles away, so the chance of them recognising anyone are very, very slim."
The company has now expanded to employ six people and is considering moving into the international market, including negotiating a contract to launch a service in Russia.
At home, other sectors such as the prevention of animal rustling on farms and metal thefts from the railways are obvious candidates for expansion. They have even had an inquiry from the Bath diocese raising the issue of lead disappearing from church roofs.
