911 to Accept Cellphone Videos

NEW YORK, NY — The New York Police Department opened a new front for tipsters on Tuesday, urging citizens to send in videos of crimes in progress.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced the start of the program in the department’s Real Time Crime Center at Police Headquarters.

In August, the department began accepting tips by text message.

The police hope to build on the network of surveillance cameras, 911 tips and text messages, tapping into the technology and habits that are already part of the daily behavior of millions of New Yorkers.

The idea takes the 911 call one step further. When a witness calls 911, the dispatcher takes the details of the crime and then assigns a special code to the report if the caller says he has photographs or video that might help solve it. A detective then calls the tipster with instructions on how to send the visual data into a department computer.

The image could be a unique tattoo on the forearm of a suspected criminal in a robbery, or a shot of a license plate of a car fleeing a hit-and-run, Mr. Bloomberg said.

“We are also working to enable the Real Time Crime Center to send photos out to all patrol cars in the area of a crime,” he said. “We hope to have that up and running next year.”

“This technology should put a scare into every would-be criminal, because the chances of getting caught in the act is now better than ever,” he said.

But city officials announced the plan with a word of caution:

“If some big hulking guy is coming at you with a hatchet, I would suggest you don’t take out your camera and try to take a picture,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “You have to have some common sense.”

Much of the success of the idea depends on the public’s willingness to provide the information. Mr. Kelly said that 911 calls were not anonymous, and that it was necessary for the detective to return the call with transmission instructions. A witness to a crime may also be asked to appear in court, he said.

But he added that if anonymity was essential, there are ways it could be done.

Videos, though not from cellphones, played a role in a couple of high-publicity cases this summer. An elevator surveillance video helped the police make an arrest in the robbery and choking of an 85-year-old woman in Brooklyn. And a tourist’s camera captured a police officer shoving a bicyclist to the street during a mass bike ride through Times Square.

Mr. Bloomberg said costs to start the program were negligible and required mostly computer software upgrades.

In addition to crimes, residents can also transmit photographs to the city’s 311 line to report complaints about things like graffiti, potholes and garbage, he said.