Burton Mail picture editor Neil Barker has been using his photography skills to help fight crime.

Neil joined forces with Neighbourhood Watch members in East Staffordshire to offer advice on photographing residents’ valuables with digital cameras.

The aim is to assist police with the task of identifying stolen goods by providing locals with high quality images of their property.

Neil said: “Pete Stevens, the police press officer, contacted me to ask if I could give some help with showing people how to use the digital cameras.

“I went to the police station with six or seven Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinators and showed them how to photograph their property – valuable items like jewellery – and burn the images to disk.”

Neil said he has had a good response from the scheme and is planning another advice session.

He said: “I’ve given them a bit of help showing them how to get the best images but the follow-up session is for after they have gone out and had a play with the cameras, because there’s no way I could cover every eventuality.”

Burton’s Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator Peter Jennings said: “All too often, police are hampered in their hunt for stolen property because of the lack of good quality photographs.

“With this system, we can take high quality digital images of valuable items such as porcelain, paitings or jewellery, which are then stored on a single computer disk.”