Volunteers are nabbing Venice’s pickpockets

WITH HORDES of distracted tourists crowding its labyrinthine streets, Venice offers rich pickings for pickpockets, especially during the summer crush. The police cannot cope. So volunteers known as Cittadini non distratti (CND), or Undistracted Citizens, help them out.

Most of CND’s roughly 60 members just take pictures of suspects, using WhatsApp to pass along leads to cops. Some only grab the thieves they spot in the shops and bars where they are employed. Even so, CND is behind a third of pickpocket arrests in Venice, says Francesco Livieri, a deputy police commissioner. Collaboration between CND and the cops is so tight, Mr Livieri jokes, that he spends more time with the volunteers than with his wife.