‘Informant boxes’ to be installed in Turkey

ANKARA

The police will install informant stations in neighborhoods, ostensibly to lead a more effective fight against crime and allow citizens to remain anonymous while providing intelligence on their neighbors.

The move by the police, reported by the Cihan news agency over the weekend, came shortly after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks urging locals to inform their neighbors if they bang pots and pans in support of the Gezi Park unrest.

The project named “The Confidential Police Notice Point Project” will enable complainants to deliver both written and vocal information anonymously, Cihan reported on July 28.

With the project, the number of reports coming from citizens is expected to increase since one can complain without fear of being identified.

“When people want to report to the police about a crime through email, letter or fax, they can be concerned that their identity will be revealed and they will get hurt; when they want to report in person, they might hesitate due to the length of the bureaucratic processes,” the Directorate of Public Order of the Police Department was quoted as stating by Cihan new agency in a bid to explicate the rationale behind the project.