The UK's only independent crime-fighting charity

Let’s be partners in crime

a quick guide to crimestoppers

Together we are making a difference

“ We believe people and communities have the right to live free of crime and the fear of crime.

If a crime does take place, any person who knows who is responsible should go to the police.

We give every individual a voice to help reduce crime; to do the right thing for themselves, their family and their community.”

7 million

re worth of stolen goods we recovered during 2012 s due a record figure. This wa ppers to information Crimesto c received from the publi ces, which reached 95,000 pie up by 4 per cent.

Crimestoppers offers a safe way for individuals to pass information to the police. Our vision is for everyone in the UK to be aware that we can receive and pass-on information to the appropriate law agency, while guaranteeing their own anonymity.

As an independent charity, the public trust us and we are the only organisation helping the police to solve crime in this way. For many people calling Crimestoppers is a brave step and we must never let them down.

The charity owns and manages the 0800 555 111 number and www.crimestoppers-uk.org receiving information about crime 24/7. Our agents play a vital role dealing with calls, or online forms through our secure anonymous web service, and can make a quick response through direct contact with appropriate Force control rooms if needed.

Crime and criminals are not tied to one geographic area, but Crimestoppers manages the information across boundaries making sure it goes to the right police force or law enforcement agency, regardless of where the person contacting us resides.

Our independence, and position of not being subject to the Freedom of Information act, enables anonymity to be guaranteed. It also allows activity and campaigns that public bodies would be unable to undertake.

The charity’s structure allows us to ask for any information from local to complex crimes. Often asking for information about one area of criminality unlocks vital information on others.

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85

of people recogn ise the Crimestoppers name.

This strength u nderpins public trust of our anonymous se rvice.

A continuous partnership The police cannot solve crimes and keep communities safe alone, Crimestoppers brings police and people together to respond to needs, increasing detections, reassuring the public and reducing fear of crime.

Crimestoppers helps deliver safer communities.

It provides a unique service for individuals, communities and law enforcement agencies across the UK. Based on a straightforward premise of promising anonymity, Crimestoppers unlocks intelligence which would otherwise not come to the attention of police and law enforcement agencies.

The charity delivers a co-ordinated approach partnering local, national and international crime agencies that help to meet crime detection goals: • Identifying intelligence needs • Tailoring the right call to action • Providing a response from knowledgeable agents to those who need it

With this approach, national priorities such as violent crime, serious organised crime and volume crime issues are able to be addressed in a number of ways, with central co-ordination supporting local delivery cost-effectively and enabling provision of key tools such as giving information anonymously online, on mobile and our Most Wanted website.

Locally our street level message provides added value to neighbourhood policing.

• More than 122,000 have been arrested and charged thanks to information passed since the charity began • Most Wanted is responsible for identifying 2,119 criminals in the UK • Our “Operation” campaigns, in Spain, the Netherlands and Cyprus have helped to bring serious criminals back to face justice at local level where the crime has been committed. This work spans national and international law enforcement and the UK force liaison needed to promote the wanted individuals in each project.

• Ensuring law enforcement and other agencies receive the information and act on it in a timely way.

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“As a Senior Officer I have seen the value of Crimestoppers in building intelligence – the person who calls Crimestoppers is going the extra mile to tell us something really important. It’s a way to get information from people who would prefer to remain anonymous. Every day, villains are arrested as a result of this vital intelligence.” , Mike Barton, Deputy Chief Constable Lead pers estop Crim O ACP am.

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Our focus on anonymity speaks volumes Crimestoppers’ local teams work with partners to identify priorities and develop campaigns to set objectives, so delivering actions at grass roots that will improve crime detection. Our engagement at a local level has never been more important to support best value and local policing.

The media play their part in our call to action with specific local and national appeals and coverage of campaigns, themes and events; our regional publicity accounts for nearly half of all our media coverage – a significant 250 pieces of quality media mentions every month in the UK. Campaigning, be it at the local supermarket or on breakfast news, prompts people to give information to Crimestoppers. Because of our guarantee of anonymity, we are rarely able to link outcomes directly back to one crime, meaning we cannot often speak of our best successes however high profile the case.

Crimestoppers actively uses its profiles on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest. During the public disorder in 2011 people came to us in large numbers despite us doing little to promote our services. The use of social networking as an information avenue snowballed as the days continued with more and more details flowing through Crimestoppers’ social media networks. The willingness of individuals to come forward and give information was commendable as they shared details and photos of what they had witnessed.

As well as proactively spreading the word about the anonymous option of providing information through Crimestoppers, the charity also teamed up with its partner, Dixons, to offer rewards of up to £5k for information concerning the widespread disorder to help bring criminals to justice.

imestoppers’ call In the 2011 disorder Cr whelming 300 centre received an over submissions and increase in online form 1,000 a day with phone calls exceeding rder information the public sharing diso ed. completely unprompt

Getting local

Gauging Behaviour

Acting locally is central to Crimestoppers’ ethos.

Our volunteer committees provide a focus for campaigning on issues which concern the local community and hold the police in their area to account for how Crimestoppers information is acted upon. Our regional managers create a network that offers professional guidance, best practice tools, and experience from across the charity to the local area.

Derbyshire Crimestoppers worked with multi-agency partners in a project to target strategic objectives of the Police and Safer Derbyshire. The joint risk threat process identified “alcohol harm” as the priority having seen a spike in alcohol-related violent crime.

Promoting an alternative anonymous route to pass on information regarding crime, the mixed media campaign Gauge Your Behaviour had sufficient impact that actionable information to the charity increased by 202%. Across the county the number of assaults in December 2011 was 10.8% fewer than in December 2010, but most importantly there were 77 less victims.

This strategic focused approach engages communities using the right media, with the appropriate message and style in the way that best connects with them.

Campaigns can help address specific local crime needs:

At one even t in the Eas t Midlands attendees w 64 of ere unawar e of Crimes advance, bu toppers in t 79 under stood it afte rwards.

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• A vulnerable person is murdered; Crimestoppers can offer a cash reward for information on the perpetrator, mobilising media support.

Through our community affairs campaigns, we have confronted a range of crime issues and perceptions that concern different groups; tackling subjects from tax fraud to terrorism and ideas from building stronger communities to crime challenges posed by prejudice, these being exactly the conditions that Crimestoppers’ anonymity is so good at unlocking.

We ensure that disenfranchised individuals can access the justice the majority of us take for granted.

“ Our recent Crimestoppers ‘anti drugs’ campaign has played a key role in empowering communities to be proactive in reporting criminal activity without fear of reprisals. This is key in terms of capturing local intelligence which rarely reaches agencies.”

Talbinder Kaur, Hall Green, Birmingham

Sometimes a nationally-led approach is required to exploit a crime issue that impacts at local level, with the organisation coming together for knowledge, resources and agency working. We launched our ongoing fight against fraud in 2011, firstly, with “advice pages” on our website and an online poll.

More than 11,500 people responded indicating priority concerns as identity theft, card fraud, benefit fraud, scams and doorstep fraud. Taking the public lead we went on to approach the sensitive subject of benefit fraud generating a five-fold increase in actionable information on the first day.

Working with individual forces we took the message local promoting Most Wanted fraudsters – resulting in 5 out of the 10 suspects arrested within 8 weeks of the launch. Our first-ever completely online campaign to raise awareness of ID theft fraud secured over 13,081 page views, with over half of the visitors to this page coming from the series of targeted Facebook adverts.

• The community is concerned about drug dealing on an estate; Crimestoppers leaflets can go through every door.

• Police identify an intelligence gap on metal theft; Crimestoppers can target a campaign asking the community what they know.

Fraud affects us all

Stamping out metal theft

METAL THEFT IS A MINDLESS CRIME THAT THEY WON’T GET AWAY WITH Metal theft costs the UK economy £770m each year. It puts lives at risk and causes misery to the communities affected by damage to property, power loss and disrupted telecommunications. Criminals can also find themselves counting the cost of their actions. Metal theft is a serious crime, risking a fine or prison sentence. Some people have even paid with their own lives.

Tell us what you know, not who you are.

Call Crimestoppers now on:

0800 555 111 rg www.crimestoppers-uk.o Crimestoppers Trust is a registered charity

Metal theft affects us all across the country, causing problems with transport, telecommunications and impacting on communities through damage to local buildings and memorials. Crimestoppers began to tackle this problem launching campaigns in the North East and then in Yorkshire and Humberside.

In the East Midlands a local media partner created a Crimestoppers video on the problems and cost metal theft creates for ordinary people. This has received over 3,400 views on YouTube since launching in March.

Our network in action

550 Volunteers

44

Volunteer committees

12

UK regions

The charity has local representation through its 44 committees across the UK and over 550 volunteers promoting its messages at community level.

Crimestoppers “call to action” was built on a threeway partnership between the community, the police and the media – principles maintained today.

A new focus on specialist skills, local champions and harnessing the support of young people at university are all part of our structured volunteering programmes giving us potential to mobilise support.

The results of their work and campaigning are directly reflected in crime information given to the charity; new industry partnerships have the potential to help us map and analyse this in future, to further inform the activity of our valuable volunteer resources.

“ You often hear people say ‘volunt eering helps make a diffe rence to people’s liv es in your community ’, well in my case it is true. I use my skills in marketin g, networking and pr oject managemen t to organise fundraisi ng. These events ge nerate funds to pay for sp ecific campaigns in my community that he lp to remove crim inals from my local stree ts.”

West Country volun teer Dev Chakrabort y echoes the thoughts of many of our supporters

Information disseminated to police forces Number of logs sent, August 2012 Less than 100 101 – 200 201 – 300 301 – 500 More than 500

Map: Esri UK

a s young people er ff o te si e h T r them feel safe life line to help mmunities. in their own co

Be Fearless about giving information Crimestoppers’ youth programme Fearless, tailors messages for 11 to 16 year olds.

Young people have been educated on how to protect themselves safely and in some cases saved from a life of crime themselves through these Fearless activities. A dedicated website www.Fearless.org, connects directly with the young people while educational resources back-up our partnerships with youth workers, school liaison officers and other youth charities.

The tools provided by the charity help those working with young people to discuss crime and how and when to give information; they provide practical support to be used locally.

Young people are the fastest growing age group using mobile technologies. This year we used innovative opengraph technology to generate a Facebook application www.RUFearless.org that allows users to experience losing their “virtual” life through a dynamic Facebook experience. Nine pieces of actionable online information were submitted following the promotion of the mini mobile site and Facebook application with over 5,000 “likes” to the app page on Facebook within the first three months.

Our hard-hitting new video showcased on YouTube illustrates an increasingly common cycle in UK gang culture. It highlights the typical experience of a young girl led into crime by an older male. His behaviour veils his true intentions and her criminal involvement subtly escalates before inevitably exploding. The repercussions of the young girl’s participation affect both her and her family. The eyeopening content educates and alerts teenagers on how to spot such dangers and avoid them, as well as be clued up on what signs to look out for in order to protect friends.

Case study

rs in the West Young Crimestoppers voluntee take Fearless to Midlands have been trained ered to deliv e ramm prog a ols, into 30 scho The campaign young people by young people. facing difficult aims to empower them when nteer Zoe sees decisions and our University Volu on crime and le peop g youn ating her time educ t for the tmen Fearless as a “valuable inves e”. futur present and

www.RUFearless.org

Staying in the lead Technology develops rapidly and Crimestoppers is no exception when thinking of how we use it to enhance our services.

New initiatives include: • New ways to empower the public and receive information • Engaging young people on relevant platforms • Working with partners to employ enhanced analytics and mapping to support decision making • Supporting our volunteers with branded campaign tools through our bespoke Marketing Hub 2011 saw Crimestoppers take our service mobile, with a version of our online information form enabling individuals to give information anonymously “on the go”. With roughly 50 per cent of information coming through our online service we wanted to meet the need of increased use of mobile devices. In just two weeks from launch in February 12% of our online information came through the “mini mobile” site. The site also gives a donate opportunity through JustTextGiving.

Additionally, services have been added to our PC accessed platform. Through a password barrier those visiting www.crimestoppers-uk.org can additionally take part in a two-way information exchange, still anonymously. This can sometimes enable us to build further intelligence for law enforcement by working closely with the investigating officer in a local force.

We will soon be providing online chat on our youth site Fearless, again responding to the communication styles and needs of this audience.

Furthermore we are working on ways that images and CCTV can be passed on but still preserve the anonymity of the sender.

We are developing mapping and analysis to support law enforcement, aspiring to identify emerging issues from call patterns and moving towards insight reports on trends in information we receive from the public.

Increasingly we are using social media for campaigning; direct marketing such as Facebook advertising and segmentation, video on YouTube, utilising our Google adwords charity grant wisely to support key campaigns like Fraud, where criminals and those that know about them are using the online space to communicate.

Case study Two men caught with more than £34m worth of cocaine hidden in boxes of . imported pineapples have been jailed The drugs haul seized at an industrial unit, was Suffolk Police’s largest find to date and is thanks to information passed on from Crimestoppers.

Funding safer communities Our Crimestoppers bureau takes calls 24/7, 365 days of the year. It was established in 2005 when ACPO, supported by the Home Office, made the key decision to deliver a truly accessible Crimestoppers service to the public. Law enforcement from across the UK collectively fund this, through ACPO arrangements, each paying their share of the actual cost. The process for receiving anonymous information is now embedded within their intelligence processes.

Local activity is driven not just by our volunteers but through a core support staff who provide professional guidance, best practice tools and experience from across the charity to the local area, whilst keeping our service in the national consciousness.

Staff facilitate day-to-day police management of Crimestoppers, and work with the broader law enforcement community to deliver results in the complex environment of cross border and serious organised criminality. This enables us to campaign strategically, from specific streets to mass media, delivering the resulting intelligence for action by the appropriate agency.

The current economic climate continues to present challenges for all sectors, none more so than charities. The charity works to supplement the 30% of funding received from a Home Office grant through other charitable and commercial activity.

We proactively seek opportunities aimed to assist and sustain Crimestoppers’ future, and additionally raise the funds for “reward” payments to support appeals. The element of statutory support aids business continuity and allows us to lever matched or further funds to meet the local needs.

We work with commerce and business to establish supporter partnerships, seek grant funding for project work and, more recently, are developing income through services such as our commercial Integrity Line – taking a lead in helping others to deal with wrongdoing.

Our success is your success The efficient performance of our 24/7 bureau operation means the public can have confidence that their information is reaching the charity first, guaranteeing their anonymity and that the information will be used in the best way possible to help law enforcement solve a crime or crimes. Highly-trained, security-cleared contact staff receive the information.

As proof that working together does make a difference, Crimestoppers now disseminates around 2,000 pieces of actionable information to police forces and law enforcement agencies every week.

We are able to respond to the demands of special appeals and broadcasts, and in the summer disorder of 2011 reacted effectively to the huge surge in information by changing staff patterns, calling on trained temporary staff and altering procedures to manage incoming volumes. Information of planned outbreaks were prioritised on the basis of requiring rapid police response.

Over the past five years the charity has increased performance by 30 per cent.

In FY 12 13:

244 2,044 2,139 206 Drink drivers arrested

Arrests for drug trafficking or supply

Actionable pieces of rape and sexual offences information received

People were arrested for burglary

35

People were arrested and charged for murder

Since inception (1988 March 2013):

126,203,571 122,575

Goods recovered

Arrested and charged

298,569,880 1,435,715

Drugs seized

Actionable information

Let’s be partners in solving crime Crimestoppers works

Find out more at:

www.crimestoppers-uk.org

Crimestoppers Trust is a Registered Charity and a Company Limited by Guarantee.

Registered in England No. 5382856. Registered Charity No. 1108687 (England) and SC037960 (Scotland).

Crimestoppers kindly supported by Esri UK (mapping and analysis) – www.esriuk.com/publicsafety and Focus Integrated – www.focusintegrated.co.uk