Tasmanians who post about crimes online rather than reporting them to police are letting offenders slip through the net, authorities have warned.
Crime Stoppers Tasmania yesterday launched its ‘Don’t Just Post It, Report It’ campaign, part of a national push to steer people off social media and onto crime hotlines.
The campaign targets the growing trend of people sharing criminal activity in neighbourhood groups and community pages rather than contacting police directly.
“Typing isn’t telling,” Crime Stoppers’ David Daniels said. “If that information never reaches the police, they cannot act.”
Tasmania Police Commander Joanne Stolp said officers lacked the resources to trawl social media for crime reports, leaving crucial intelligence buried in Facebook threads.
“We don’t know that something has happened, we don’t know that it hasn’t been reported – or we don’t know what we don’t know,” Stolp said.
The push comes as more Tasmanians share footage and details of hooning, burglaries and youth crime online without alerting authorities.
Commander Stolp said social media vigilantism was also putting innocent people at risk through false accusations and public shaming.
“Occasionally we’ll see a bit of ‘name them’ in community Facebook groups and then it becomes a ‘I’ve been defamed, my name has been put through the mud’ when potentially something hasn’t actually happened.”
Crime Stoppers guarantees anonymity, with tipsters not required to provide names or testify in court.
The service supplies a significant share of Tasmania Police intelligence, with even minor details often helping to crack cases.
Information can be reported anonymously on 1800 333 000 or online.
