WE see no problem in Home Office plans to add photographs of offenders to its online crime maps website.

The government said the plan was to increase transparency and accountability.

The online crime maps for England and Wales were launched in February, allowing users to see which offences have been reported in their local streets by entering a postcode or street name.

Information on the crime map website is broken down into six categories – burglary, robbery, vehicle crime, violence, and other crime and anti-social behaviour.

The move has already been described by one human rights group as a “macho piece of posturing”.

We’re sorry, but we don’t agree.

Newspapers like this one and others across the country regularly publish photographs of criminals convicted by the courts.

People have a right to knowwhat an offender looks like, and those who commit criminal acts lose any rights to anonymity by their actions.

Those in favour of rights for offenders over those of victims will bleat about vigilantism, among other things.

But that’s just plain nonsense.

People have every right to know what crimes have been committed in their communities and who committed them.