Judge and jury

At least two stores in Pointe Claire Plaza have images of people they accuse of either shoplifting or fraud posted on their windows in the mall. The scheme is probably to scare off would-be or repeat crooks and to have the public identify the alleged culprits caught on security video. The images posted at the two Plaza stores are somewhat fuzzy but faces can still be made out in most cases. Ironically, the stores are located just down the street from Montreal police Station 5 but it seems the storeowners didn't bother reporting the incidents.

While storeowners have every right to protect their businesses from theft, they should, for practical reasons, report the incidents to police and must provide them with the video evidence if these culprits are to ever be prosecuted. Police may also set up task forces to deal with local problems based on crime statistics.

Posting these images at one or two stores might simply result in moving the problem to another mall instead of taking the crooks off the streets.

Storeowners who post these images also have to be careful not to include images of innocent people in the background or of minors.

Based on interviews The Chronicle had with people at these two Plaza stores, they feel the images are making a difference in combating crime.

However, there are serious concerns that some people might be wrongfully accused of a crime and that our judicial system's basic motto of innocent until proven guilty may be undermined with these images posted publicly.