Bluetooth messaging from the boys in blue

West Yorkshire Emergency Services has started 999TV featuring short video clips about the emergency services in the area as well as some tips and hints on keeping yourself and your possessions safe and well. Some of the videos are also posted up on youtube under username 999TV.

The video that I was alerted to from Mike Butcher at mbites, was the one about the local police using bluetooth to assist with crime prevention. The campaign is called 'Sneak-in' and is specifically aimed at reducing burglary in hotspot areas. There isn't a direct link unfortunately, but if you go to the website, it's easy enough to find.

David Harrison, Crime Prevention Officer says: "We are using cutting edge technology, which is utilising the mobile phone. The idea is to use PCSOs to go into the hot spot areas and send out messages in the form of the video clip through the mobile phone, which detects other devices such as mobile phones, Sat-Navs and computers.

Once the device has been detected, the officer will then send the message, and it is up to the owner of the mobile phone as to whether they accept this message from West Yorkshire Police. If they do, it gives a clear message of the sneak-in campaign - a hand reaching through an unlocked door."

At first sight, this might seem like the local bobbies are engaging in bluespam, but if you have a look at the video clip, you'll see that it's peer to peer messaging rather than a broadcast system and is genuinely aimed at the greater good as you'll see from my comments on mbites blog.

I'd be very interested to know how the Sneak-in campaign worked so if anyone knows anything about it, please comment on this post.