Facewatch

Facewatch is a secure online crime reporting and information sharing platform.

Facewatch was started by Simon Gordon, owner of Gordon’s wine bar because he was frustrated that his customers were frequently the victims of petty crime and because he wanted to support the Police who found it difficult to solve these type of incidents. Simon initially set out to create a simple, low cost platform using modern technology that would enable businesses to support the victim and to pass the information they had from their CCTV cameras to the Police to help them solve crimes more effectively. Simon soon realised that the platform could also be used as a powerful tool to enable businesses to share information between themselves thereby enabling them to adopt the measures necessary to reduce and to prevent crime from happening. After four years of development and significant investment, Facewatch has evolved. The new version of the Facewatch platform is secure and scalable and is being used by thousands of businesses and by many Police forces. Whilst staying true to its core philosophy of almost being a public service, Facewatch remains free for the Police and the Law Enforcement community and charges businesses a small subscription fee to be able to share information and to exploit the analytical tools available on Facewatch. Reporting crime on Facewatch, however, remains free. In the future, Facewatch will aim to generate new functions and APPs and to partner on a commercial basis with a range of companies whose services, such as facial recognition, will further empower businesses to become more effective in preventing and deterring crime.