India’s citizen cops hand CCTV footage to the police

A worker installs a security camera in front of the historic Red Fort on the eve of India’s Independence Day celebrations in Delhi on Aug 14, 2014. An app that lets Indians share security camera footage to fight crime raises questions about the pitfalls of private surveillance. — Reuters

MUMBAI: One evening last month on a desolate backstreet in the Indian city of Indore, robbers held up a motorcyclist, threatened him at knifepoint and made off with the takings he was carrying to his boss.

Solving such crimes is often tricky, but with the help of footage from private CCTV cameras in the area, police were able to track down the culprits and recover the stolen 1mil rupees (RM53,617) within hours.