The online watchdog of the Thuringian police repeatedly becomes a kind of digital suggestion box. According to the Thuringian Ministry of the Interior and the State Police Directorate, people do not use this police service only to report suspected crimes. For example, photos of allegedly illegally parked cars are regularly uploaded there, an Interior Ministry spokesman told the German Press Agency.
Advertisement
A spokesperson for the state police department said other reports through the portal have little to do with the authority’s actions. Complaints about uncollected garbage or broken hallway lamps have already been reported to the police through the online watchdog. It was said that such reports were “simply misdirected”.
Facebook: Federal Court of Justice wants to quickly give substantive decision on data scandalOffers are not for emergencies
Online monitoring of the state police was activated in 2021. Its purpose is to provide an additional channel through which people can reach the Thuringian Police – for example, to report criminal allegations or to report crimes. This proposal is clearly not for contacting the police in an emergency. “In urgent cases, dial 110!” It is written there.
The police now receive thousands of reports through this portal every year. In the first three quarters of the current year, a total of about 14,600 incidents were reported to the police through the online watchdog. “This is an average of 54 per day,” an Interior Ministry spokesman said. Since it has also become possible to send file attachments via Online Watch, this function has been used frequently. “More than half of the processes were provided by the sender with a file attachment.”
Over 10,000 reports
According to previous information from the ministry, police received about 17,900 reports about online watch in 2023. There were about 15,500 reports in 2022. A spokesperson of the state police department said that these figures show that this proposal was well received by the people. This has now become established in everyday police life. However, it is not possible to determine exactly how many incoming reports use Guard as a digital suggestion box.
According to the State Criminal Police Office, the police are continuously working to further develop Online Guard. For a few weeks now, companies have been able to register in the Online Guard portal using an online tool called “My Company Account”. “This is sent to the police along with the verification report and hence it is clear that the report was made by a genuine entity,” the state criminal police office said. Nevertheless, it is still possible to use the offer without registration, “and the use of registration has no effect on the processing time of an ad.”
(Mac)
Civil rights activists worried: Mauritius is completely shutting down social media before elections
