The Crime-Fighting Cell Phone: Coming to a City Near You

Jan. 23, 2007 — -- There may be a new way to take a bite out of crime -- your cell phone.

Digital cameras are pretty standard on most cell phones these days. While they serve as great tools to spontaneously capture some of life's special moments, they also often serve to capture images and evidence of embarrassing and politically charged incidents.

The first images of Saddam Hussein's execution by hanging -- still highly controversial -- came from a cell phone. And when comedian and "Seinfeld" co-star Michael Richards went on a racist tirade while performing at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles late last year, someone in the audience captured the whole thing on a cell phone camera, leading to the clip being posted and viewed again and again on the Internet and before long in the mainstream press.

But New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a better use for the ubiquity of cell phones and the tiny eyes that reside inside: fighting crime.

"This year, we'll begin a revolutionary innovation in crime-fighting: Equipping 911 call centers to receive digital images and videos New Yorkers send from cell phones and computers, something no other city in the world is doing," Bloomberg said in his State of the City address.

The idea is simple: Someone sees a crime in progress, witnesses an accident, sees something suspicious, calls 911 and follows it up with an image or a video to show police or emergency workers exactly what happened.

"It's an idea whose time has come," said Jason Post, a spokesman for Bloomberg. "This technology is already used widely in the private sector by people sending around images and text messages."

Post explained that while the proposed program won't be implemented for a while -- he called it a "multiyear project" -- the city believes it can get the job done with existing technology.

There's significant precedence for this move in New York, as cell phone cameras have played key roles in catching flashers and even Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle's fatal airplane crash where he slammed a single-engine plane into the side of an apartment building.