“James” commented on my previous post Police Use Text Message Alerts to Combat Crime so I thought I would expand a little on my “money better spent” remark.

Information is data in context. The number “10″ doesn’t mean anything by itself. Once I say “10 is then number of digits in your phone number” it becomes information. Tip lines and the like generate lots of data but not very much information. If the police ask me to report tall, medium build, male, Caucasians, wearing black sweatshirts, they are asking for data because any metropolitan area will have a whole lot of people matching that description.

The money would be better spent on better training for neighborhood watch type programs. What counts as suspicious behavior? How does one become a better witness? What actions can I take as a private citizen to reduce crime without exposing myself to greater danger? If people went to a higher level of training can they get some kind of trusted ID to get quicker 911 response for their reports?

I am guessing that the money spent on hardware and software would have gone a long way to paying for expanded neighborhood watch training, reducing false-positive reports, and actually providing the police with Information rather than just more data.

(Update: “James” was not James R. Rummel, so credit where credit is due.)