Police deploy thin Bluetooth line

Police in West Yorkshire are planning to use Bluetooth to alert people that criminals are lurking behind every tree and they should lock their doors and windows. Apparently, one in four burglaries is carried out by an opportunist, noticing an open door and brazenly walking through it. Unsurprisingly, the incidence of such …

[Matt]

ISPAM

I thought spamming was illegal in the UK.

That point aside, when are they going to learn that changing the law, or changing the way we act doesn't really solve the problem.

In NZ people often leave doors open and nothing gets nicked. When I was in Korea I noticed a much lower crime rate.

The only reason I can think of is that the majority of people in these countries don't want to steal.

So, we need to change something to stop people wanting to steal in the UK too.

Otherwise, we'l just find the thieves up their game a little.

[Anonymous Coward]

Be afraid

That's not a child playing he's a thug lurking.

That's not a gleeful passer by, he's a drugged up tosser boy.

Not a wanderer, a murderer!

BE AFRAID! BE AFRAID!

Run quickly into your houses lock the doors, shut off the internet, that's how they get to you, they come through the internet, those eCommerce terrorists and incite you into being bad.

Nanny Blair is on the loose, he's all smothering, with his oozy well meaning slime and, he knows when you've been bad or good, so you'd BETTER BE GOOD FOR GOODNESS SAKE!

I CAN HEAR HIM COMING.

RUN QUICKLY, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, RUN AND SAVE YOURSELF!

Arrrrr........

lol

[ian]

Privacy and Electronic Communications Act

It seems ignorance of the Privacy and Electronic Communications act is endemic in Yorkshire. First PlusNet, and now the Police themselves...

Here's a link, officer.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/privacy_and_electronic/detailed_specialist_guides/pecr_guidance_for_marketers_dec06.pdf

[Anonymous Coward]

Plod > spam blacklists

instead of muckin about with their phones and fancy technology that does little more than spam the public unnecessarily... shouldn't plod be man-handling these oily face crims into the nearest clinky?

Surely that would a better use of their time...or is that just too radical a concept?

[Anonymous Coward]

but

most bluetooth devices need to either accept incoming connections, or have to "pair up", usually with a PIN code

i know i don't accept annonymous messages... neither does anyone i know with bluetooth

[fon]

is you blutooth visible??

heh, heh... most dont even know how to set security for blutooth.. they usually are left on 'say yes to all'..

and some even advertise it!! It is fun scanning for them, some 'blutooth names' say things like ..

my PIN is 6513 for ..x

phone me 16161616168 ...

and I guess the poor overworked 'boys in blue' have to do all this ...

[Andy Turner]

Never heard of Bluejacking?

"i know i don't accept annonymous messages... neither does anyone i know with bluetooth"

It's called BlueJacking, but I'm astounded that the cops are doing it. I'd be pretty pissed off if they were doing it to me. I trust that the system keeps a log of who it's already pestered and doesn't do it again.

[Alan Davies]

Why no pants?

I always thought that you could send contact details over Bluetooth, without the recipient having to accept your message. I do it all the time to people on public transport, I send them contact details using the name "Why no pants!"

[Chris Bradshaw]

reminder of what

I'm curious whether the overall effect will be to lower or raise the 'opportunistic' crime rate.. Recipients may accept this as a reminder to lock their doors, but a few may be reminded to look for open doors to steal from...

[Emo]

Bluetooth reminders

Just wait, next we'll be getting:

Did you turn the oven off?

Watch out for the raise payment. Careful now.

By reading this you might step in that steaming dog turd.

Heaven forbid anyone using anything bluetooth enabled in the area!

Eamon

[Brian Milner]

Simpsons Bluetooth security barb

A recent episode (S18E21) of the Simpsons showed Bart and Lisa playing '24'.

Bart: "Are you on a secure line?"

Lisa: "Yes, but you're on a Bluetooth headset, the most

vulnerable device known to man."

[Simon Harrison]

Shocking really

Well I've heard of bad press but this is a bit ridiculous.

I am the Chief Technology Officer of Innovation Leeds.

After reading this article I had to laugh really.

I am not sure where reporters get their facts from and who actually reads this stuff but this article was about as accurate as the Daily Sport, may aswell have put a few half naked woman in the banners!

For clarity:

The messages are not spammed and conform to the relevant legislation. All phone ID's are detected and the messages are either accepted or rejected (user choice). Regardless of the decision, a message will not be sent more than once to any one device. No personal data is recorded from the phones (before you ask).

I guess we will always have sceptics that say that the problem is with the state of the Country, etc. It's easy to stand on the sidelines throwing the stones; this of course really helps to solve the problem!

The phase 1 solution has cost next to nothing to develop and deploy, if it makes a slight difference in raising the awareness of crime then I for one will at least feel like I have made a difference. If for some reason it doesn't, we haven't blown loads of tax payer’s money. If phase 1 is a great success then phase 2 will see some significant spend on an infrastructure solution, however this will only happen if phase 1 is successful. We shall see in good time.

Maybe I'll think about getting a job writing witty articles about subjects that I have picked up from other press releases and no nothing about - insert witty pun here ............

Read the real articles here:

http://www.sourceuk.net/article/9/9999/boys_in_blue_get_blueing.html

http://www.wypnpt.org/NPT.asp?id=23

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news?articleid=2933649

Yes, it's not going to solve all our issues with crime, but every little helps as they say!