In the old days, residents would have convened a Neighbourhood Watch group to share valuable intelligence and what criminals were up to in their areas.

And while old-fashioned Neighbourhood Watch still has a huge place in fighting crime, police have said more modern techniques can help residents to stay safe and catch crooks in their tracks.

Suffolk Constabulary’s rural crime team put advice on its Twitter feed that the messaging app WhatsApp is a “great way to quickly pass info to your neighbours about crime and suspicious activity”.

The app, which is available on Android and Apple mobile phones, allows people to message to individuals but also set up groups where multiple users can see messages.

That means residents could set up a WhatsApp group of people in their street or cul-de-sac and message the whole group when they see any suspicious activity.

That allows neighbours to be prepared and also keep a look out themselves for any problems, thus helping potentially helping to prevent crime.