Trinidad and Tobago, Social Media and Crime

The Guardian story says facebook is being considered.  The Trinidad Express story says the TT Police Service is considering launching its own website.

Also, the articles refer to the launch of the Caribbean Most Wanted website: www.caribbeanmostwanted.com

The good thing is that on each wanted poster page, there's a link to a form for folks to submit tips anonymously online (though how anonymous that can be given Internet technology is open to debate - it is possible for the site admin to track which IP address was used to submit the tip, though some effort will be required to trace it to a particular person).

Several things can be improved.  Firstly, caribbeanmostwanted.com is supposed to be part of the Crimestoppers network operating in several countries in the Caribbean.  However, there is no link to it at the moment from Crimestoppers T&T website.  In fact, Crimestoppers T&T website doesn't even have a link to an online tip submission form.  I haven't checked the websites for Crimestoppers in other Caribbean countries.

Secondly, the website owners need to recognise that the website audience is not limited to T&T, or any individual Caribbean country.  The criminals could've moved out of the island.  Hence, when giving telephone numbers to call, give the full number include the international dialling code.  Also, in some cases, toll-free numbers aren't toll-free or accessible to international callers.  So asking folks outside of T&T to call 800-TIPS is incomplete - it should be +1-868-800-TIPS.  Same thing goes for the contact details of the other Crimestopper chapters in the Caribbean - the number given for contacting Crimestoppers Jamaica is 311.  Someone's not thinking this through.

Further, at the bottom of the online tip submission form are two tick boxes:
- I confirm that this form is not being used to report something that needs urgent police attention

- I confirm that I've provided as much information as I know. I understand that by providing all the details I know, my information could make the difference between criminals being arrested or walking free.

What's the purpose of these two tick boxes? If you don't want folks to submit urgent stuff - what is the definition of urgent in this context? - why not put it in large bold text at the top of the form? How is confirming that I've provided as much info as I know relevant?  Tick boxes on forms are usually a form of CYA protection - i.e. Cover Your A$$ - for website owners, but I fail to see whose A$$ is being covered by these questions and how that coverage is being effected.

Lastly, they note at the bottom of the tip submission form that "All information is submitted over an encrypted connection and you will remain anonymous."

However, when I check the security details for the session via the browser, it says the webpage is partially encrypted. How is one to know what data is not being encrypted and thus open for reading if sniffed by an online eavesdropper?

The certificate also doesn't specify the owner.  So if Crimestoppers is the reported owner of the website, why doesn't the SSL (encryption) certificate owner details match this?

Apart from encryption, SSL certificates are meant to aid in establishing trust: that the website audience can trust the authenticity of the related website.  The missing info undermines this trust, and thus undermines Crimestopper's objectives.