- Crimestoppers UK
-
Crimestoppers UK is an independent crime-fighting charitable organization in the United Kingdom, based in the Wallington district of Surrey. Crimestoppers runs the 0800 555 111 phone number, allowing people to call anonymously to pass on information about crime. People can also pass on information anonymously via a secure online information form on Crimestoppers website. As with other Crimestoppers organisations, callers are not required to give their name or any personal information, and calls cannot be traced.
Crimestoppers UK is a member of Crime Stoppers International, an umbrella organisation of similar organisations.
Contents
Most Wanted
In November 2005 Crimestoppers launched its Most Wanted website. On Most Wanted, members of the public can look at images of people currently wanted by UK law enforcement. Police from across the UK choose the most wanted appeals that are shown on the website. More than 1000 people pictured on Crimestoppers’ Most Wanted website have been arrested since its launch.
They recently hired Batman and Robin to help them capture criminals on the most wanted list it has become very successful way of stopping crime. [1]
Campaigns
Crimestoppers runs a number of campaigns each year appealing for information about different crime types. Recent campaigns include one on domestic violence and one on drugs.
The domestic violence campaign, Break the Silence around Domestic Violence, provided information to the public on how to help yourself or a friend who is suffering from domestic violence. In 2004 changes occurred in the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act that give victims more protection. The Act also allows information given by third parties to play more of a role in building a prosecution case. Now Crimestoppers is asking for more information from third parties in order to get offenders prosecuted.[2]
Crimestoppers ran a campaign in line with the UK Home Office's National Tackling Drugs Week in June 2009. The campaign focused on cannabis cultivation. During this week Crimestoppers asked the public to help rid drugs from their communities by passing on information about drug-related crime anonymously to the charity Crimestoppers or to the police. [3]
On 15th November 2010 Crimestoppers launched a UK-wide anti-counterfeiting campaign. The campaign lasted for a month and focused on four types of counterfeiting in particular (counterfeit cigarettes, counterfeit money, counterfeit fashion goods and counterfeit DVDs[4]). Crimestoppers made a microsite, called Fakes Fund Crime, as part of the campaign. The Fakes Fund Crime site features information about how to spot fakes, about how counterfeit goods harm you and about how they fund crime. The charity's partners for the campaign included the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), the Film Distributors Association (FDA), Pentland Ltd and the Bank Of England[5].
Catching UK criminals abroad
Crimestoppers works with partners including the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the UK Borders Agency to track down UK criminals that are believed to be on the run in Europe.
Operation Captura is Crimestoppers’ campaign that aims to track down UK criminals on the run in Spain. Spain has been a popular place for UK criminals to hide, but in 2004 European Arrest Warrants came into effect making it easier to catch criminals in Spain. Operation Captura works to get information out about wanted criminals that are believed to be in Spain, so people there can try and identify them. Since Operation Captura was launched in 2006, 38 of 50 wanted criminals have been arrested.[6]
Crimestoppers worked with the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Dutch Crimestoppers and the Dutch Police to launch Operation Return in March 2010. Operation Return aimed to track down six UK criminals that were believed to be on the run in the Netherlands. This list consist of some of UK’s most dangerous criminals that are wanted for crimes that vary from drugs smuggling, the illegal sale of firearms, robbery, violence and rape. To date, two of the wanted individuals have been located.[7]
Fearless
In April 2010 Crimestoppers launched Fearless, its brand for 11 to 16-year-olds. Fearless replaces ShadowCS, Crimestoppers’ old youth brand. Fearless allows teens to report crime anonymously and also provides workshops about crimes that affect young people. There are three different ways to report crime to Fearless. You can use the secure online form, call Crimestoppers at 0800 555 111 or text about knife crime to 88551. All these ways are 100% anonymous and are a safe way for teens to give information about crime.[8]
Rewards
Crimestoppers pays rewards for information supplied that results in an arrest being made. The amount paid ranges from £50 to £1,000, depending on the severity of the crime. They do not pay rewards for the recovery of stolen property. An individual's anonymity is not compromised by claiming a reward - when an individual passes information on to Crimestoppers, they are issued with a code. If an individual wants to check whether they are eligible for a reward, they are requested to call Crimestoppers again at a later date with the code they were originally issued with. Crimestoppers will inform the caller whether they are eligible for a reward. If they are, the caller then chooses a bank branch and a date when they would like to collect the reward. The caller then goes to the bank branch, provides them with the code and will be issues with the cash reward.[9]
Crimestoppers UK History
In 1985, PC Keith Blakelock was murdered during the riots at the Broadwater Farm Estate in London and the police appealed for information, stating that people knew who had been responsible but were frightened of coming forward.
Michael Ashcroft (now Lord Ashcroft and Chairman of the Trustees of Crimestoppers), a businessman, offered to provide the police with money for a reward to encourage somebody to come forward with information. This led to discussions with the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, resulting in Michael Ashcroft founding the establishment of the Crimestoppers operation in the UK in January 1988. He set up the charity and together with some business colleagues who were also concerned about the rise in violent crime, they funded the UK operation.
Originally launched as the 'Community Action Trust', the charity was renamed Crimestoppers in 1995, by then covering the whole of the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Initially, the administrative organisation was based on ITV regions, but the best model proved to be local county-based committees working in partnership with single police forces. The roll-out of this structure continues; there are now 38 volunteer committees across the UK and a further increase will follow, as volunteer numbers grow sufficiently to set up these new, more locally focused groups.
The concept of businesses establishing a partnership with the media and the police to help solve crimes in this way, chimed with a study undertaken by the Metropolitan Police Service who had come across Crimestoppers in America, originating some 10 years earlier in Albuquerque.
Lord Ashcroft has been Chairman of the Trustees of Crimestoppers for the last 20 years and a core supporter and donor to the charity throughout this period.[10]
In January 2011 Crimestopper UK began working with the Crimestoppers group from Barbados, West Indies. [11][12] During the overseas exercise members of Crimestoppers UK trained roughly one hundred members of the Royal Barbados Police Force.[13]
Results
In the 22 years that Crimestoppers UK has been around, they have never broken their anonymity promise. As a result of the information given to Crimestoppers, 21 people are arrested every day and somebody is charged with murder every 9 days. Over 100,000 individuals have been arrested as a result of information passed to Crimestoppers. This milestone was reached in June 2010. [14]
References
- ^ http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/most-wanted/our-achievements
- ^ http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/media-centre/news-releases/2008/break-the-silence
- ^ http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/how-we-help/our-partners/community-partners/making-communities-safer/national-tackling-drugs-week
- ^ http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/media-centre/crime-in-the-news/november-2010-crime-in-the-news/crimestoppers-cracks-down-on-counterfeits-152634
- ^ http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/media-centre/crime-in-the-news/november-2010-crime-in-the-news/crimestoppers-cracks-down-on-counterfeits-152634
- ^ http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/most-wanted/catching-criminals-in-spain/background-to-operation-captura
- ^ http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/media-centre/news-releases/2010/operation-return-crimestoppers-uk-announces-new-fugitive-campaign
- ^ http://www.fearless.org/
- ^ http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/giving-information/rewards
- ^ http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/how-we-help/our-history
- ^ C., A. (27 January 2011) "New crime push" Nation Newspaper http://www.nationnews.com/index.php/articles/view/new-crime-push/. Retrieved 28 January 2011
- ^ "Criminals, beware!" Nation Newspaper 28 January 2011 http://www.nationnews.com/index.php/articles/view/criminals-beware/. Retrieved 28 January 2011
- ^ N., A. (30 January 2011). "RBPF officers receive Crime Stoppers training". The Barbados Advocate. http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/newsitem.asp?more=local&NewsID=15439. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
- ^ http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/how-we-help/our-achievements/facts-and-figures
External links
Categories:- Law enforcement in the United Kingdom
- Charities based in London
- Crime Stoppers
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
