I shot the video below while waiting at a traffic light a couple of nights ago. I noticed the car on my left was creeping forward and figured they were most likely going to run a red light so I started recording the car. A few seconds later as expected, the car ran a red light for absolutely no logical reason. But running a red light, driving on the emergency lane or parking illegally are just very common occurrences because people rarely get punished for their actions.
[YouTube]
So why don’t we crowdsource the police work? Awhile back when I posted about the Deera App in which you could report garbage around Kuwait, a reader emailed me and told me about how in Qatar you could report traffic violations using their app called Metrash2 (You can watch one of their ads for Metrash2 below). So why don’t we do the same in Kuwait? People are already taking photos of people people illegally parking in handicap spots or people driving on emergency lanes. So why not allow these incidents to be officially reported like the Metrash2 app?
[YouTube]
21 replies on “Crowdsourcing the Police Work”
Hey Mark, the deera apps does not work at all… I had reported 3 issues on their app however it’s been 3 weeks and yet not action was taken… Really disappointed … 😔😔😔😔… Maybe I’m not uploading the pics in the right way or maybe they are on a break in Ramadhan
or maybe coz you are not a blogger 🙂
Not sure why you refuse to believe that the leftmost lane is no longer an emergency lane, but a traffic overflow lane. Its not illegal to drive on it most of the time.
Not sure why you would use that tone of voice when you clearly know what I am talking about.
1) Not all emergency lanes are traffic overflow lanes
2) Overflow lanes are not active all day long
So you can’t just drive on any emergency lanes whenever you like which is what a lot of people are doing.
Good idea. A “name and shame” approach may be more effective. If the culprits don’t get reprimanded, then at least we can ridicule the police and their poor attempt at law and order.
Because Wasta
irrelevant
Let the Kuwait government start an initiative by opening an app or creating an email address where we can send videos/photos and I’ll be catching 100 people a day. I used to record driving around q8 and made a youtube show out of it but I stopped after 5 episodes because I know nothings going to be done. A system where we get recognition that something was done about the crime will easily get me to put my dash cam back on my car and start catching reckless drivers.
What’s the link to your show?
While I like the Qatari app, the video doesn’t show any action taken after the complaint is received
Awesome Idea! I could send tons of pics/vids of crazy maniacs on the road. Is there an app or can we initiate one? Better still would be if MOI cooperated and took action on every post. Social Media has long been the way to go! In fact India caught on the idea around 2010, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2010/08/2010823155956707226.html
Just a few examples from India:
Official page of Delhi Traffic Police. Please lodge your complaints here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Delhi-Traffic-Police/117817371573308
https://www.facebook.com/BangaloreTrafficPolice
https://www.facebook.com/punetrafficpolice.gov.in
https://www.facebook.com/trafficpolicechd
https://www.facebook.com/HYDTP
and a latest entry being Noida Police
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Noida/Noida-cops-turn-to-Facebook-to-manage-traffic/articleshow/38449522.cms
One of the worst things I can’t stand in kuwait…is when people park at the handicapped spots….those guys/girls need to know that what they are doing is a crime
Why wait for the Kuwaiti Govt./ Police? Start up a facebook group or website for readers submissions, and promote it out in the blogisphere (and make sure it lasts a while, because as Mark can testify, things take at least a year to take off and be considered ‘a serious website/blog.’)
Wasta? Post it anyway.
It needs to work like Deera. Deera have a direct connection to the municipality so when things are reported they pass it along to the municipality to get fixed. Just posting pictures on a facebook page or blog won’t mean much.
Citizen journalists with IT savvy can themselves step up to the plate and develop an app rather than having to sit and wait for the officials to respond.
Further, recording of and registering plaints is one aspect of things but what gets done is quite another.
Execution and acting upon the data feed is key.
What’s the point of making an app if the government isn’t going to use any of the evidence people capture to issue violations.
Great idea Mark! This could really be a life saving initiative!!
Dont think ths will work mark. remember that indian guy that took a video of someone beating up someone else and then HE got arrested for defamation? Imagine what would happen here – but if we find a way around it such that anyone could report anonymously – that would be awesome.
Great idea but you’d fear that if this becomes official, the ‘vigilante’ mentality might go a little too far with some people to where it could become dangerous! (Speeding behind someone to catch them on tape, holding your phone up while driving and not fully focusing on the road, chances of getting into fights if someone notices you taping them, etc)…
Agreed
This would be a good idea in Kuwait. However, I think that many fight will occur when people see other taking pictures of them or their cars and postiNg them to to the net or reporting them to the app..