Report the incident.
A victim or witness provides the incident type, date, time and location, describes what they observed and adds available images or video.
The service
A relevant request.
A clearer incident record.
We-Watch was developed to connect an incident with people who may hold useful information—and give their contributions a shared destination.
Review and request.
Administrator or moderator approval initiates outreach to relevant participants. The service can connect incidents with saved places such as a home or business; historical presence matching is part of the broader product design and is confirmed by deployment.
Contribute to the same incident.
Participants choose whether they have useful information to share. Their accounts and media are associated with the incident rather than scattered across separate conversations.
Support victim and police follow-up.
The intended service gives victims and police access to the consolidated report and routes jurisdiction-relevant incidents to local police by email. Recipient arrangements and access controls are established during deployment.
A familiar situation
A parked vehicle is damaged.
Who saw what happened?
A business owner reports the time and location. After review, relevant participants receive a request. A neighbour may have an account; another business may hold camera footage. Each contribution joins the incident record.
Illustrative use case, not a reported customer outcome. Contributions depend on participation and available information.
COMMUNITY INFORMATION NETWORKILLUSTRATION
A relevant requestReach potential contributors around an incident.One incident. Information together.CONNECTED
Witness accountsPhotosVideo
Witness accounts & supporting media
What belongs in an incident record?
The historical draft user guide describes a simple sequence: identify your role, record what happened, add available media, then review the summary.
The right time and place.
Record the incident date, time, location and type. The location should describe where the incident happened, even if the contributor is somewhere else when preparing the report.
Describe what you observed.
The guide provides separate victim and witness paths. A clear account helps connect each contribution to the same event and explains the contributor’s relationship to it.
Give recordings their context.
The guide identifies dashcam, mobile-phone and building-security video as examples of supporting media, followed by a summary review before publication.
Source: We-Watch User Instructions, WW UG 001, draft. This describes a historical workflow; current screens, moderation, permissions and notification behaviour require validation before deployment.
Understand participation and information access ↗Questions worth answering
Clear expectations build participation.
Who receives a request?
Participants selected through the deployment’s location and incident rules. Saved locations can connect people with places that matter to them. The radius, time window and eligible incident types are agreed for the deployment.
Can witnesses see the full incident report?
The intended consolidated-report model reserves viewing for victims and police; witnesses contribute information. Moderator review is a separate operational role. The exact permissions are confirmed and tested before a deployment goes live.
Can contributors remain anonymous?
The service includes an option to contribute without displaying a name. That is different from being unidentifiable to the service operator. The deployment’s privacy notice must explain operator access, authorized disclosure and what media itself may reveal.
Does a submission replace contacting police?
Do not assume that a submission creates an official police report or triggers attendance. Follow the participating police service’s reporting instructions. For an emergency or immediate danger, call 911 or your local emergency number.
Does this replace public appeals and canvassing?
The aim is to reduce the effort involved in finding contributors. Public appeals and manual canvassing may still be useful, particularly where network participation is limited.
Build a better way to gather incident information.
Tell us about your community, your current process and the outcome you need.