Bye Bye Murder Boards

By sizemore Last edited 226 months ago
Bye Bye Murder Boards
murder_board.jpg

Another familiar London sight may soon be a thing of the past, but whether this particular icon will be missed at all is still being debated. Bright yellow 'murder boards' are to go according to the Telegraph. Scotland Yard is about to ditch the boards because of concern that they generate public anxiety while adding little or no benefit to police investigations.

It's been suggested that as many as 1000 boards a year are on the streets of London which is worrying in itself as they are only supposed to appear in the wake of murders or serious crimes, although it is thought some officers put out boards for a range of lesser offences.

A Scotland Yard official said:

We are considering whether there are better ways of seeking information, which are more reassuring for the public. The boards go up where it is thought they are needed but they sometimes don't come down quickly enough... If we do still use them, should we not have follow up boards saying 'we solved this'?"

Perhaps the solution is to implement the same kind of electronic ticker signs that sit atop bus shelters. MURDER 563 SOLVED - NEXT MURDER DUE IN 15 MINUTES. That kind of thing...

Note: The above photo was found on Flickr and taken by Colin Gregory Palmer and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License. While using such jolly key word searches as 'murder' we also came across these photos. As picklin'paul says: Why waste money on an expensive tour guide when you can tastelessly recreate the scenes of Jack the Ripper's murders yourself?

Last Updated 25 May 2005