Police develop Facebook application

The force gathers intelligence on Facebook

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has developed an intelligence gathering application for Facebook.

After users of the popular social-networking site install the GMP application they can get news feeds alongside links to a crime-reporting form, force website and Youtube videos.

The force is the first in the country to take advantage of the site and it said the reason behind the move was to raise awareness of local incidents and appeal for information.

Assistant Chief Constable Rob Taylor said: "Greater Manchester Police is proud to be the first force in the country to use this new technology and it demonstrates our commitment to exploring all avenues available to us to help fight and detect crime.

"Facebook has 59 million users, seven million of whom live in the UK, so we realised that this was an excellent way of spreading our messages to people on a more personal basis.

"This application allows Greater Manchester Police to further raise awareness of incidents taking place within our local communities in a bid to gain more intelligence and bring offenders to justice."