What is Facewatch?
Facewatch and the associated mobile phone App ‘Facewatch id’ is a CCTV image sharing system. Facewatch calls on members of the public to identify people in CCTV images relating to low level crimes. Images are also shared within corporate and local “groups” to alert members of the group of “potential criminal activity”. Facewatch is essentially a wanted poster social network, that trivialises crime fighting and asks the user to spend no more time identifying a person accused of a crime than “liking” a news story about their favourite celebrity. The medium cannot be seperated from the message.