We have a problem in Britain with low-level antisocial behaviour: fly-tipping, mobile phone use while driving, and dog mess on our streets.
These are low-stakes criminal offences, but the odds of anyone being caught are small. In England in 2023–24, local authorities dealt with 1.15 million fly-tipping incidents1, yet issued only 63,000 penalties in the same year2. Councils can issue fixed penalties for littering, dog fouling and fly-tipping, up to £1000, but only if an enforcement officer happens to witness the crime. Police are over-stretched.
We already let citizens do part of this work for non-criminal problems. FixMyStreet3 allows you to snap a pothole, dumped fridge or broken street light, provide a location on a map and send it to the appropriate council department. On the policing side, constabularies provide tools such as Operation Snap4, where you can upload video of dangerous driving. Individuals can actively contribute to improving their environments, and councils can target limited enforcement resources where there is clear evidence.
We should roll this out further. Give people a simple, national way to report certain offences: one app and one website. You choose the category, point your camera, and submit a photo or video. Number plates and locations are processed automatically. The system clusters repeat offenders, and anything that looks plausible goes into a review queue. Humans still make the final decision whether to issue fines.
There are risks: false reports by malicious actors, and vigilantes who fixate on innocent people they dislike - but certain guard rails can be added. Make malicious or fabricated reports an offence, require clear evidence before any fine is issued, weight repeat behaviour more heavily, and give people a sane appeals route.
This is not about turning councils into a secret police force. It is about accepting that low-level crime prevention is underfunded, and yet has a large impact on how we experience the places we live. If you make it easy to report, automate as much of the analysis as you responsibly can, and back it up with real penalties, you give people a practical way to take shared responsibility and ownership for their streets.