If you are a member of a local crime watch page on social media, you probably see photos of people engaged in suspicious activity fairly often. You may wonder how helpful those photos actually are to police.

Cst. Dan Martin with the Airdrie RCMP detachment said they always welcome tips and information on suspicious activity. That said, it is important to ensure photos sent to the RCMP will help an investigation.

"A random picture of somebody that you believe may have done something, we can't really work with that. We need good evidence that that person has actually committed a crime."

Martin said people usually post on social media first before submitting photos to the RCMP, and they do sometimes receive photos that have to be discarded.

"We certainly have to filter through and make sure the pictures do support a crime. We do obtain a lot of pictures that we can't really use or that people can't directly link the people in the pictures to certain crimes."

Martin also said that one of their priorities is public safety.

"Getting in somebody's face and taking a picture of them can sometimes be risky and can lead to somebody getting hurt, so we don't encourage people to run around getting pictures. Leave that work to the police."

If you do see something suspicious, the best thing to do is contact RCMP. After that, if you are able to get a clear photo of the suspect's face or of vehicle license plates safely, RCMP are interested in those photos.

 

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