CRIMINALS are being brought to justice thanks to cyber-sleuths in Darlington.

In a bid to trace wanted criminals, police in the town have turned to social networking sites for help.

Their ‘Face of the Day’ initiative asks the public to identify people captured on CCTV who are suspected of criminal activity.

For more than a week, police officers have updated their Facebook and twitter pages with images of people they would like to identify.

The response from the public has been enthusiastic, with many armchair sleuths contacting the police with details of those pictured.

As a result, a number of wanted criminals have been apprehended after being identified by members of the public and others have handed themselves in voluntarily.

The initiative developed from ‘Caught on Camera’, a system used within Durham Constabulary that sees CCTV images displayed in public areas at police stations.

One of the officers behind the scheme said it was a natural progression to widen the operation onto the internet.

Detective Sergeant Andy Crowe said: “We spotted an opportunity to reach the general public. We cannot identify everyone but people out there can.

“It has been quite the success and we could not ask for anymore so far. “We just wanted to shake things up a bit and get the public to help us. It is important for us to get them involved as it gives them accountability and makes them feel valued.

“Social media is another avenue of communication between police and the public and it is a very big thing these days.

“Using it is a very positive thing. People are engaging with us through it and it is having significant results.

“Darlington has massive CCTV coverage so it works very well in this area but we are considering rolling it out to other areas.

“It is vital that we identify as many people was we can. We are just trying to make people’s lives better..

“People can contact us with names or information and while we do not take the information as hard evidence, we will take it and investigate it.”

To see if you can identify anyone suspected of criminal activity in the Darlington area, visit the Darlington Neighbourhood Police Teams Facebook page.