A shopkeeper who decided to shame alleged thieves in his shop has been ordered by police to take pictures of them down.
John Keppie said that he was told the posters at his Sweet Thoughts shop in Bournemouth breached data protection laws.
So rather than take them down completely he has covered their faces with sweets.
However, a day after the visit from police he was angered by their new crime fighting technique – flying blue paper planes through peoples open windows.
The paper aeroplanes have writing on them that says secure your home. This could have been a burglar.
Mr Keppie wrote on his own notices after changing them: We have updated our posters. Although they did steal from us and spit at a member of staff we cannot show their faces until they have legally been shown to have stolen from us and they are all alleged thieves.
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Speaking about the latest police gimmick he said: It would seem they have the time and resources to do this but not to investigate a crime that has happened to me. It is a waste of time.
Mr Keppies shop was targeted by shoplifters on Sunday, July 8.
He said: The thee girls came in and stole three drinks from the fridge. I gave chase and they actually turned round and spat at me.
He said he called the police and provided them with CCTV evidence and the female suspects along with their names.
He added: They said they were too busy to deal with it. Their response did not leave me best pleased. I was so fed up that I decided to do something about it myself.
A spokesman for Dorset police confirmed that they have spoken to Mr Keppie about the posters.
He said: We did visit him and offered words of advice in relation to the issue of CCTV still images being used and the need to meet guidelines of the statutory body, which is the Information Commissioners Office.
We are continuing to investigate the report of shoplifting.
Meanwhile, the police paper plane initiative has also been criticised on social media, with posters also questioning whether officers have better things to do.
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Randy Howard said: Is there so little crime that the cops have time to go around throwing paper planes into peoples windows?
Another poster said: Throwing a paper plane is more work than the police would probably do to actually catch burglars after a crime has been committed.
One asked: Where do I get a job as an official police paper plane thrower?
Kevin Strudwick, the crime manager for Bournemouth Business Reducing Crime Partnership, a co-operative of local business, police and council, said the scheme could anger people and arouse suspicion.
Mr Strudwick said: I think this initiative will just anger people and there are far more effective ways of sending a message to warn of the dangers of leaving your home unguarded.
Having people hanging around at your window will arose suspicion and there could be the chance that you catch someone inside who is not looking their best.
It would be a different story if they posted a leaflet through the letterbox but the image of them throwing paper aeroplanes is almost comical.
Maybe they would be better placed to put an advert on the local radio warning people about this important issue.
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