Winter 2014 Connect by Crimestoppers Trust

ISSUE 13 WINTER 2014

ONE ERA TO THE NEXT

IN THIS ISSUE: Our 25th Anniversary campaign Tackling cannabis cultivation Utilising sport to help fight crime See our fundraisers in action

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nationalnews

It gives me great pleasure to write the introduction to this, the 13th issue of our Connect magazine. Having taken over in September, it has been a whirlwind introduction to this wonderful charity of ours, and it is rewarding to see the outstanding work being done by all our staff and volunteers around the country. ‘Times are hard’ someone important once said, and that statement is particularly true in the public sector where seemingly never-ending drives for efficiency and savings seem to dominate the agenda on so many levels. What is clear though, is that in and amongst the maelstrom, the value of what we do is appreciated and indeed cherished by parties across the board. Key stakeholders such as Police and Crime Commissioners, the Police themselves, and the Home Office, all value and support what we do. Most important of all though, is the fact that what we do is relevant to the communities that we serve. Our activity reduces crime, helps put criminals away and crucially, allows individuals, and by extension communities, the opportunity to report vital information to police and wider law enforcement anonymously in a way that simply would not happen without our presence. I recently had a conversation with the Victims’ Commissioner, Baroness Newlove. She praised the work we do and made the point that victims of crime are particularly vulnerable and need support. She went on to say that one of the most important things that can be done to help them is to ensure that perpetrators of violent crime are arrested, that something is being ‘done’. We all play a pivotal role in that ‘call to action’ and will, I am sure, continue to do so in the future.

During the week of January 20th – 24th we hosted a week long focus on three crime types chosen by the general public and conducted surveys, polls, debates and quizzes all about crime and community safety. The week was brilliantly received with the site gaining over 4,000 unique visits in just five days and an unprecedented level of support via social media. www.blog.crimestoppers-uk.org At Crimestoppers we have always concentrated our efforts on getting people to respond to crime by giving information anonymously, but we are conscious that there is more to be done. It’s not just about solving crimes, important though that is, it’s also about responding to the needs of individuals and communities by helping to prevent crime taking place in the first place. It’s not a question of either/or but rather both. The site will also act as a conduit for the Charity to highlight the work we do with community groups as well as sign-posting to partner charities and

organisations we work with, many of whom have contributed to our successes over the last 25 years.

THE 2014 CRIME MATTERS SURVEY Share your views. Help fight crime

As ever, Mark

NATIONAL NEWS

FEARLESS

Published by Crimestoppers Trust, PO Box 324, Wallington, SM6 6BG Editor Giselle Lares Designed by Redback Design Crimestoppers is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee.

INTERNATIONAL

REGIONAL NEWS

Since inception to January 2014:

Arrested & charged Actionable information

18 The next issue of Connect will be published in July 2014 Article deadline: May 2014 Please send articles to giselle.lares@crimestoppers-uk.org

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CrimeStats

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Property recovered Drugs seized

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127,384 1,513,515 £129.3m £312.1m WINTER 2014 | 3

nationalnews

LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE 25TH ANNIVERSARY CAMPAIGN In 2013, Crimestoppers was busy celebrating its 25th anniversary and we began by saying thank you to the general public for their continued support, and by highlighting some of the amazing achievements the Charity has accomplished. Having launched on July 1st at the House of Lords, there has been continued support for the 25th anniversary campaign and the plans and projects are continuing to grow. Here are some of our highlights so far:

CRIMESTOPPERS FIRST

Another example of “Our Big Thank You” was the launch in Birmingham which saw outdoor media space, including drugs billboards being erected to support the radio advertising campaign through September and October.

Over 150 48-Sheet Billboards l BT Phone-box artwork across major towns and cities l Radio advertisements in Nottingham, West Midlands and Glasgow l Over 1 Million branded bus tickets issued in Avon and Somerset l Advertising and support of the Charity at Hull Premiership Football Games for the 2013/14 season l National Broadsheet advertising in the Sunday Telegraph l 25th Anniversary video broadcast at V Festival to over 140,000 people l Zam Salim, Crimestoppers 25th Anniversary video director, nominated for a Breakthrough BAFTA l Taxi advertising across Glasgow City Centre

Having now thanked members of the public for their continued support we will begin to focus on the next stage of the campaign and look to the future. As we begin the New Year, Crimestoppers has begun the journey of listening to the public about how crime impacts their lives and how the service provided by the Charity makes a real difference.

Do the public think...

By launching ‘Crime Matters’, a brand new blogging site in January, the Charity is now able to engage with the general public directly and has provided a platform to explain who we are, what we do, how, and importantly when, to contact us. The blog will also aim to galvanise public support by acknowledging communities, individuals and organisations that support the work we do and explain how the Charity plays a vital part in improving community safety.

possible to take part including our corporate partners, local committees, followers on social media and volunteers. We are all intrinsically linked to crime in one way or another, whether directly or indirectly through family, friends, work colleagues or our close community.

Crimestoppers will continue to recruit as many people as

Having a platform such as Crime Matters to share best practice,

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West Country Crimestoppers’ 25th anniversary is ‘just the ticket’ for local residents

Sue Mountstevens and Gordon Chisholm

advice and guidance from, will play a vital part in ensuring that all our supporters and the general public will have a forum to not just educate themselves, but to voice opinion on, the crimes that really matter. The new blogging site is live and can be found via www.blog.crimestoppers-uk.org

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‘Our Big Thank You’ campaign saw lots of activity across our active regions in the UK. In Bristol, the committee organised 1.2 million bus tickets to be issued in a two week period featuring Crimestoppers messaging to highlight the anonymous service. This served as a thank you to Bristol residents for playing their part in helping

Crimestoppers be as successful as is it. Putting information on the back of bus tickets was a way of reaching out to local people and encouraging them to make contact and play their part in reducing crime in Bristol. Avon & Somerset Police Crime Commissioner, Sue Mountstevens, helped launch

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the campaign ads and features in the photo above with Crimestoppers’ Area Manager for the West Country, Gordon Chisholm. To celebrate the Charity’s 25th anniversary a roll of bus tickets was cut by the PCC to recognise the role Crimestoppers plays in fighting crime and to reinforce its independence from the police.

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nationalnews

WEEDING OUT CRIMINALS

#Readthesigns

The campaign also produced some significant media attention, recording the most items of coverage for any Crimestoppers campaign (339) in the first week, as well as reaching an international audience including CNN, BBC World, and Time Magazine.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

The innovative design and concept was given a bronze award as part of the Design Business Association Design Effectiveness Awards in the ‘Design for Society’ category which recognises the return on investment that a coherent, well-thought-out and professionally executed design strategy can achieve.

We asked the public to ‘read the signs’ of Human Trafficking earlier this year. In January 2013 Crimestoppers and the UK Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC), launched a campaign to educate the public and appeal for information on incidents of human trafficking for the purpose of forced labour and domestic servitude.

“ The campaign saw information into our call bureau on human trafficking offences increase by 34% in the first week” Over the last three years more than 1,000 men, women, and children were identified as potential victims of labour trafficking in the UK. In 2012, that figure increased by 11 per cent and will continue to rise without the help of the public and UKHTC.

The video tells the story of a young woman trafficked to the UK, with the viewer able to decide her fate by selecting clickable options throughout, which takes them through to different scenarios. Information into our call bureau on human trafficking offences increased by 34% in the first week of the campaign and 24% over a three month period, with 75 per cent of that information coming in online. The video has now received well in excess of over 100,000 views. Watch it at www.readthesigns.co.uk

The Charity worked with a film production company to produce a video highlighting the key signs of human trafficking, with the ultimate aim of encouraging people to ‘read the signs’ and pass on any information they might have to Crimestoppers.

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In response to the changing landscape of commercial cannabis cultivation (CCC), Crimestoppers ran a national campaign which generated a 28% increase in information received about cultivation during the three month campaign period. The 2013 cannabis campaign took inspiration from a highly successful pilot, co-ordinated by the Dutch Police, which featured an innovative scratch and sniff card containing genuine cannabis oil. We replicated this novel approach and, aided by police intelligence, distributed over 200,000 scratch and sniff cards to known hotspot areas covered by 13 regional police forces.

The problem profile highlighted the increasing use of urban areas for CCC and links to serious and organised crime. A creative agency was commissioned to produce artwork that would encourage the end-user to engage with the scratch and sniff element, educate them on the signs to spot a cannabis farm, reinforce the links to serious and organised crime and deliver the Crimestoppers call to action. Information generated by the campaign was used by the Metropolitan Police to support Operation Hawk which resulted in the closure of 34 cannabis factories, with £2.1m worth of cannabis seized and three firearms recovered.

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‘Weeding out’ criminals is important to Crimestoppers and the Charity will continue to think of new and engaging ways to inform and educate the public of what to look out for. The heart of the campaign was to target organised crime which is funded heavily through cannabis cultivation. With the large number of cannabis farm closures since the launch of the campaign, the impact so far has been a great success.

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international

OPERATION SUNFIRE

HELPING CATCH FUGITIVES One of the many things we at Crimestoppers pride ourselves in is catching fugitives. The importance of the public giving information anonymously, in order for fugitives on the run to be located and arrested, is paramount to public safety and crime reduction. In September 2013 we teamed up with the National Crime Agency (NCA), the Cyprus Police (CYPOL), and the British High Commission to launch a campaign in Cyprus to appeal for nine wanted criminals who had absconded following offences committed in the UK including rape, child sex offences, and fraud, with some of them having been on the run for a number of years. Within three weeks of the campaign launching, three of the nine individuals had been arrested.

Operation Sunfire is a campaign that seeks the most wanted international fugitives believed to be hiding in the UK. The latest instalment, which launched on the 4th February 2013, was the third appeal for information with a particular focus in areas of London. Crimestoppers asked the public for information on 18 subjects which led to our call bureau receiving 73 pieces of

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information. As a result of the campaign, Lukasz Wyrzykiewicz, Svetlana Mironenkova, Krzysztof Pedzik, Vasile Vladu, Dariusz Farfus and Edvinas Judinskas were arrested. Most recently Hysni Sokolaj and Karol Koczmara have also been arrested. In comparison to previous Sunfire Operations, the Crimestoppers communications team were much more involved in the media support of this

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Smith was wanted for death by dangerous driving while his partner Skelding was wanted for perverting the course of justice. Both have since returned to the UK and been sentenced for their crimes. A fourth individual, Martin Power, was arrested in April 2013 in Spain having featured on the

list for an alleged ÂŁ7 million mortgage fraud.

Unlucky 13

campaign, which contributed significantly into the fantastic results. Notable highlights include the second highest website peak of the year, an increase of 275% of normal daily levels. In just the first three days of the campaign launch 60 reports were received by Crimestoppers. This was followed by another 17 in February and another four in March.

Paul Lockwood, wanted for sexual offences against a child, was arrested within 48 hours in Somerset, while couple Wayne Smith and Julie Ann Skelding, voluntarily handed themselves in after six years on the run following the media publicity generated on the island.

The latest Operation Captura campaign launched in November 2014 and sought to locate 13 wanted fugitives believed to be hiding in Spain. Since the launch, five of the wanted Captura fugitives from the overall list of 56 have been arrested, showing once again the success of our international campaigns. We look forward as a Charity to the new initiatives we will embark on in the upcoming year to locate criminals on the run attempting to evade justice.

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development

DEVELOPMENT SNAPSHOT Business Development plays a key role in delivering the ambitions of the Charity. Developing partnerships and careful stewardship lie at the heart of our strategy; we have reviewed and strengthened delivery on current activities and begun to diversify income streams.

SPONSORSHIP AND CAMPAIGNS Campaigns are an important source of income for the Charity. Recently we underwent a review of our campaigns and services, employing the expertise of a specialist agency, to audit the commercial value we add to companies and compared this to other organisations. This exercise, which is nearly complete, will enable us to further improve our offer to existing and new partners.

Tackling fraud through students

Updates We are delighted to be working with a range of new organisations including Morrison Supermarkets, the Post Office, NHS Scotland, Counter-fraud and Retailers Against Crime. We offer companies a range of services including the Integrity Line which enables company employees to report wrong-doing; and campaigning on their behalf to raise awareness of crimes affecting them with the public. These activities support corporate governance and security services, they are also fundamental to Corporate Social Responsibility.

We have entered a partnership with JELC, a specialist licensing agency, who will take the lead in representing the Crimestoppers brand with potential licensees from the retail, manufacturing and service sectors. In October we had a presence on JELC’s stand at Brand Licensing Europe in order to showcase our brand amongst other upcoming and leading brand owners helping to identify licensing opportunities.

Delivering the ‘Don’t be a mule’ campaign to Universities

Taking on many different guises, fraud is an issue that affects everyone. In April 2013 our Money Mules initiative supported by Lloyds Banking Group produced some great results. For the past two years, Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) and Crimestoppers (CS) have been aware that fraudsters were targeting specific university populations, so we wanted to focus on education and awareness to help protect students from being duped into depositing fraudulent funds.

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We secured the support of a number of universities to deliver this campaign, speaking directly to students and university staff. 250,000 students were made aware of the Money Mules campaign. We spoke to 3,300 students directly at nine events across the UK and secured fantastic national coverage. Interviews on BBC financial news, News 24 and Money Mules marketing materials were used in an episode of Channel Four student comedy series ‘Fresh Meat’ which has an audience reach of 811,000. Other universities are now

talking to us about some of the ways that they might get involved. Throughout the activity LBG were actively involved and are now participating in additional volunteering opportunities focusing on fraud. Thanks to awareness initiatives like this Crimestoppers has seen a 15% increase in information reported on fraud. We are also in the process of working with universities to set up student volunteer committees to support more local crime-reduction initiatives on campus and in their local area.

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WIPING CRIME OFF THE MAP Information lies at the heart of the Crimestoppers service to the pubic and companies. We are therefore excited by the opportunity to work with Esri UK who are specialists in geographic intelligence systems (GIS).

Mapping our success The introduction of advanced mapping technology promises to transform the way in which Crimestoppers collects, shares and communicates crime information. By capturing the precise locations of incidents and presenting information on digital maps, we expect to strengthen our analytic capabilities and our impact on preventing, reducing and detecting crime. Location is one of the most important details that Crimestoppers needs to capture when it receives a call from a member of the public. Without accurate information about where an incident or crime took place, or where a criminal was sighted, well-intended tip-offs will be of less immediate value to the police.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION Widely used by commercial and public sector organisations around the world, GIS helps people to capture, visualise, analyse and understand location-based data using interactive, digital maps. Working with Esri we have now begun to use GIS and are already reaping the benefits of this advanced technology. Our use of GIS will enable us to deliver more detailed information to police and partners. By capturing location references for the majority of the 1,000+ logs we receive daily, we can pass on more detailed and meaningful information to our partners. It is vitally important for Crimestoppers to communicate with members of the public and let them know that the information they pass on has a tangible impact on crime. Between April and August 2013, we received in excess of 36,000 pieces of actionable information, which led to more than 2,300 arrests and the seizure of drugs worth over £6 million. By using GIS we are able to break down these national figures and create interactive maps showing our impact, region by region. In recent years, we have invested in our corporate website and now plan to incorporate interactive maps, allowing people to drill down to regional level to see information about the impact of Crimestoppers’ work. This online use of GIS will enable Crimestoppers to make its website

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more relevant and engaging for members of the public and this will, in turn, grow online visitors and encourage more donations. The current Most Wanted campaign, sponsored by the National Crime Agency (NCA), is the first to integrate the use of GIS. All sightings of criminals – in the UK and abroad – that are reported to our call centre, will be supplemented with precise location coordinates, whenever possible. It will then be much easier for investigators to look at maps and see clusters of sightings, indicating the most probable locations of fugitives. To help reduce crime and minimise commercial losses, Crimestoppers plans to use GIS to analyse the information that it collects and identify crime patterns across the country. With this improved insight, we will then be able to work more collaboratively with partners to help reduce crime. “GIS will enable us to bring new information to the table to support tactical planning,” Crimestoppers Head of Development Anamari Bishopp says. More information about GIS technology and how it adds value can be found at https://crimestoppers-uk.org/get-involved/ our-corporate-partners/our-corporate-partners/ esri-uk/

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Fighting crime with football

Some of our Fearless volunteers were joined by ex-Eastenders star Nicholas Bailey at the Wolverhampton five a side football tournament. Lots of local young people joined in on the sporting actives including Stacey, pictured with Nicholas, who made a real impact on the day and was described by onlookers as a “bright and friendly young person” and in her own words; “better than the boys at playing football.”

Fearless launch world’s first purpose built Cage Cricket

Scotland Fearless Cup The first Fearless Dance & Football tournament took place in Scotland over the summer last year. 16 football teams and 18 dance groups from across Glasgow battled through various heats with the lucky few making it to the final on Friday 26th July at Petershill, North Glasgow. A&M Training partnered with Fearless to make the competitions a success and were a valued and vital part to the tournament.

Interview with new Fearless staff Emma Bloomfield in Sheffield What inspires you to work with young people? As a young person I experienced many challenges and understand how hard it can be growing up, especially when there is no one there to talk to. I enjoy providing support to young people to help them develop, achieve and live a healthy positive lifestyle. It is rewarding to know that my support has helped them to be safe, healthy and successful.

up as they don’t want to be branded as a snitch. The online form is a great opportunity for more young people to report crime anonymously as a high number of young people access the internet everyday. This should hopefully allow young people to be Fearless against crime. The Fearless website has activities, questions with answers and interesting facts which make it more interesting for young people to explore and become engaged.

Why do you think Fearless.org works? A lot of young people are living in fear because they are aware of crimes that have been committed / planned but they are often too scared to speak

What has been the highlight of your role so far? I have enjoyed promoting Fearless at events in Sheffield. I have met Nicola Adams at a boxing event which was an exciting experience. Visiting the

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To view the video, visit: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=QyBo18BR9L0

Emma with Olympic boxer Nicola Adams

bureau was an interesting experience for me as I got to see how calls were dealt with. What are you looking forward to over next 12 months? We have planned to deliver some fun activities in our workshops including creating radio adverts. I am looking forward to hearing the different ideas the young people come up with and can’t wait to promote Fearless by working in Sheffield to ensure every young person is fearless against crime.

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Crimestoppers in Greater Manchester partnered with Cage Cricket, Lancashire County Cricket Club and Salford Council to reach young people through a new form of street based cricket called Cage Cricket. An exciting new purpose-built cage was opened in July 2013, heavily featuring Fearless branding, to make cricket more accessible to young people. Crimestoppers have purchased two sets of equipment for Lancashire Cricket Club’s Development Workers to go out into the community and work with young people who normally wouldn’t be able to access cricket.

Yorkshire & Humber Fearless Tramlines On 21st July 2013 Fearless was launched at the internationally acclaimed music festival Tramlines in Sheffield. With the newly recruited Fearless outreach workers and the assistance of Sheffield Futures young advisors, Fearless was a dominant feature at the event. Tramlines is aimed at young people and features live music and dance acts. With the message to empower young people to stand up to crime, Fearless joined forces with the Sheffield City Council’s community youth teams and the campaign No More Wasted Lives.

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Development workers will be signposting the Fearless website to show young people how to make a difference in their community and how to make the right decisions. Edith Conn, Chair of Greater Manchester Crimestoppers attended, along with the Mayor of Salford, representatives of Lancashire Cricket Club, the founders of Cage Cricket and other representatives from the community. The Salford Cage Cricket was featured on BBC Breakfast Sport that morning with presenter Mike Bushell and young people trying it out.

Train the Trainer The Fearless ‘train the trainer’ program was delivered through the Crimestoppers Hertfordshire Committee via a dedicated Youth Volunteer – Greg Gibson. Greg uses his own personal story to reinforce the importance of educating young people about crime and criminality which has proven to be invaluably effective. His dedication to deliver the program has had a huge impact on those who have attended his training sessions who then go on to use their learnings with the young people they engage with.

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fundraising

VOLUNTEERING & EVENTS Crimestoppers relies heavily on its fantastic volunteer community, who raise funds, promote the Charity and get involved with campaigns. We offer companies great volunteering opportunities within communities.

London Marathon

G4S UK and Ireland are teaming up with the Fearless programme, which aims to help young people aged between 11-16 years exposed to criminal environments. G4S employees have been recruited to deliver bespoke training sessions to professionals working with 11-16yr olds. This initiative is the first of its kind. We are keen to work with more of our corporate partners on initiatives like this.

New Scotland Yard Dinner The New Scotland Yard event was hosted by the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe QPM and was an opportunity to strengthen existing stakeholder relationships and develop new partnerships with influential individuals and organisations. It also served as a platform for us to highlight the need for financial support through our partnerships in order to continue our vital work. In his speech, our Founder and Chairman, Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC looked back at the role played by the Met in the formation of Crimestoppers and reminded guests of the need for our unique service. The Commissioner then spoke of the high regard in which the Charity is held by law enforcement and the value of the information given by our anonymous service users.

2013

Our presence at the world’s largest fundraising event, the Virgin London Marathon, is another way of appealing to staff within partnership organisations and new charity supporters.

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SOCIAL

L A I C SO

In November 2013 our Twitter platform surpassed 30,000 followers and in the same month the Facebook likes surpassed 14,000.

In 2013 a team of 25 dedicated runners took to the streets of the capital and collectively raised over £28,000 for Crimestoppers. All Crimestoppers places for the 2014 Virgin Money London Marathon are filled. If you secured your own place through the public ballot we would love you to join our team. For more details visit www.crimestoppers-uk.org/vmlm14

TWEETATHON + ON THEIR TAIL

If you would like to help make communities safer by running the London Marathon for Crimestoppers in 2015 please contact events@crimestoppers-uk.org Crimestoppers’ new programme of exclusive events enables us to bring together key stakeholders from law enforcement, communities, media and business.

25TH ANNIVERSARY RECEPTION Our 25th Anniversary Reception, held at the House of Lords, brought together 250 guests including MPs and Peers, representatives from our network of volunteers, the media and partners from law enforcement and business. Lord Ashcroft stressed the importance of looking to the future and building on our achievements, and spoke of the significance of the attendance of Sergeant Lee Blakelock, of Durham

SOCIAL

Constabulary. It was the murder of Lee’s father, PC Keith Blakelock, in 1985 during the riots at the Broadwater Farm estate in London which sparked a chain of events leading to the establishment of Crimestoppers. Guests also heard speeches from the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, the Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP who referred to Crimestoppers as a ‘great British success story’ and Margaret Mizen, who with

her husband Barry, soon to be MBEs, co-founded The Jimmy Mizen Foundation following the tragic murder of their son. Margaret spoke movingly of how Crimestoppers empowers the public to take action when crimes are committed in their communities. Thanks goes to our partners, The Kelly Group, Esri UK and the Bestway Group for their sponsorship of these events.

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Crimestoppers recently held a 24 hour ‘Tweetathon’ to publicise crime information received in near real-time on Twitter. Using an interactive map created by the Charity’s partner, Esri UK, tweets were visible on Crimestoppers’ website, so people could see what was happening in their own areas (at a county level). Throughout the day, Crimestoppers posted over 200 tweets which stimulated nearly 700 retweets and reached a potential audience of more than 1.1 million. Website visitors doubled and Twitter followed suit, testimony to the success of this initiative and the vital role played by our social media channels. At Crimestoppers we understand the importance of social media as a growing platform for our core business and our partners and have developed a wider presence in this area during 2013. Our recent campaign with Post Office Ltd and West Midlands Police made use of social media as a key launchpad for ‘On Their Tail’, a

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campaign tackling Cash Vehicles in Transit (CVIT) crime in the West Midlands. Facebook was used as the main tool to raise awareness of, and to collect information through, a series of promoted posts and targeted adverts. ‘On Their Tail’ featured one promoted post per week from Crimestoppers’ Facebook page for the first four weeks of the campaign and analytics were used to determine when there would be the most traffic. This strategy enabled the four posts to reach a combined audience of over 211,000 and result in over 3,000 engagements. The campaign also featured three targeted Facebook adverts which appeared daily, all of which displayed different images and messaging. The adverts have so far reached a combined audience of over 51,000. Since the launch of the campaign in September 2013 there have been no CVIT attacks in the area – at this time last year there were nine incidents. This type of campaign is new to Crimestoppers and represents a move from traditional campaigns into more diverse strategies and communication.

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regionalnews Eastern Crimestoppers

Humberside Crimestoppers

EASTERN REGIONAL CONFERENCE IN CELEBRATION OF OUR 25TH ANNIVERSARY In recognition and celebration of the Charity’s 25th anniversary, the Eastern Region held its inaugural regional conference in May which was attended by over 100 volunteers, staff, police colleagues and other stakeholders. Sponsored by Riverside and ELLE Security Group the conference was opened by the host county’s Chief Constable and closed by the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner. Guest speakers included Crimestoppers Trustee Bill Griffiths CBE, who detailed how he worked with Lord Ashcroft, KCMG, to set up Crimestoppers in 1988 and then Chief Executive Mick Laurie CBE, who set out his vision for the next 25 years. Other guest speakers included Ann Oakes-Odger MBE, (founder and director of KnifeCrimes.Org but also a Crimestoppers volunteer in Essex), Chris Preddie OBE, (Dreams Become Reality and former Crimestoppers volunteer), and Tanya Whitney who is a Fearless Champion in Hertfordshire and who set up Billy’s Wish Foundation in memory of her murdered step-son Billy Dove. Last year the region saw a 370% increase in the amount of media coverage and an increase in

HUMBERSIDE IS PREMIER LEAGUE Humberside Crimestoppers committee have secured funding to advertise Crimestoppers at the KC Stadium in Hull, home of the newly promoted football team Hull City AFC, aka Hull Tigers. This has been highlighted as a fantastic brand awareness opportunity to capitalise on the promotion of Hull City to the football Premier League, which brings added media attention. Humberside were delighted to be able to utilise the 25th campaign materials, namely Burglarystoppers, to promote the Crimestoppers message.

calls in all counties, with one increasing as much as 70%. There has also been a dramatic increase in the hits to the fearless.org website from those in this region. The dedication and enthusiasm of Eastern Region volunteers has certainly driven these results and we wanted to take the opportunity to thank them whilst showing our partners what an amazing Charity we are. The day was received very positively by all and left everyone feeling motivated.

With the development of a good working relationship with the KC Stadium management and commercial team, there will undoubtedly be more opportunities for the Humberside Crimestoppers committee to promote the message in the future.

Lancashire Crimestoppers

Festival goers party safely across the UK

STUMPING OUT CRIME

Crimestoppers was promoted at both V-Festival events in Staffordshire and Essex. Engaging with young people from across the country to help reduce crime at the festival, staff and volunteers attended the events and chatted to festival goers about giving information on crime safely and anonymously.

Megan Owen - Graduate Volunteer

We hope that many will also remember to pass on our details to friends when they arrive home, as Mark Stevenson, Crimestoppers’ Regional Chair for the West Midlands said; “You never know when they may need to contact us.”

Kay Floyd, the Community Project Officer of LCCC Foundation, asked Crimestoppers to attend various cricket matches throughout the summer.

Crimestoppers is working on a new project ‘Safer Festivals’ where Crimestoppers becomes a third line of security next to the police and their own staff. Mark attended the festival with Jane McCann, Chair of West Mercia committee, as part of their research into what festival goers need from the Charity.

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Carol Elliot called play and attended Lancashire Lightening cricket matches from the end

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of July, right through August with a team of willing volunteers who promoted Crimestoppers at these well attended matches. John Bell, Christopher Davies, Christian Wewer, David Swift, Miss Swift, Frasier Parr, Declan Murphy and Jo Mitchell joined Carol and Ralph Harrison at the

wickets and attended matches promoting Crimestoppers and supporting England. This opportunity meant that several thousand Crimestoppers cards were distributed throughout the crowds.

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regionalnews

West Midlands Crimestoppers

Humberside Crimestoppers

VOLUNTEER TO CYCLE 100 MILES IN A DAY FOR CRIMESTOPPERS

n support of the “fantastic work” we do as a Charity, West Midlands Regional Chair, Mark Stevenson has decided to do a charity bike ride at the end of October 2014. Mark says: “I had a little health scare in 2013 that made me realise my lifestyle wasn’t the best. Anyone that knows me knows I was a 20 a day smoker and I enjoyed a good night out more than most. The health scare made me realise I needed to change the way I lived and introduce more exercise, but like most people I hate exercise and find it boring. So I needed a challenge or a goal to get me there.

I believe that feeling safe in our own homes or places of work or at social events is paramount to a happy, close-knit community, so I decided that I would try to raise money for Crimestoppers.

“The amazing work Crimestoppers do just cannot be matched”

Co-patron of the Sussex committee of independent Charity Crimestoppers and best-selling crime novelist Dr Peter James welcomed the five companies as new Golden Handcuff members at a recent ceremony at the Hilton Brighton Metropole hotel. Lewes-based Mayo Wynne Baxter solicitors, Lancing Business Park, Cardens Accountants (Brighton), the British Engineerium (Hove) and

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A new scheme which launched in Autumn 2013, urging young people to ‘do the right thing’ was backed by Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Ellis. The scheme was part of the ‘Fearless’ campaign and gave non-judgemental advice and information to young people in schools to help them make the ‘right decisions’ in difficult circumstances.

Please give generously and encourage me to match the goal of 100 miles on a bike in one day.” Visit Mark’s Just Giving page and help Crimestoppers make a difference: http://www.justgiving.com/ Mark-Stevenson-100mcycle

IT TAKES ‘ONE VOICE’ TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE The Crimestoppers Humberside Committee joined forces with Humberside Police and Bridlington Town Council to launch the One Voice campaign in March 2013 encouraging the people of Bridlington to speak out about crime in their community, and the fact that it only takes ‘One Voice’ to make all the difference.

BUSINESSES UNITE IN FIGHT AGAINST CRIME A solicitors’ firm, a business park and a security company are among the latest businesses to join a Charity’s campaign to reduce crime.

PCC URGES YOUNG PEOPLE TO DO THE RIGHT THING IN THE WEST MIDLANDS

Crimestoppers allows relatives, friends, neighbours or even competitors of criminals to pass on information without the fear of identification, but more importantly, this allows those that seriously fear the criminals or reprisals from criminal gangs or groups to have their say on how safe they deserve to be. I know this is an unusual Charity to choose but the work they do is very important to me and cannot be matched by any other organisation.

West Midlands Crimestoppers

Beacon Services (Burgess Hill) joined the prestigious club in recognition of the work that the Charity does in support of Sussex Police. Over the next year, they will each donate around £1k to Sussex Crimestoppers, which receives no central grant for the work it does locally. Through local campaigns, the volunteer-led committee constantly raises the profile of the Crimestoppers number 0800 555 111, which allows people to provide anonymous information about crime and anti-social behaviour.

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West Midlands Crimestoppers

Mr Ellis met with regional Crimestoppers’ representatives to discuss the plans and said; “This Crimestoppers’ scheme will better equip youngsters to make the right choices and make it easier for them to report crime anonymously.”

The launch, which took place at The Spa, marked the beginning of a joint initiative which aims at reducing crime through partnership working and community engagement. Launch attendees included the PCC Matthew Grove, local councilors, business people and members of the local authorities. There were presentations from the Chair of committee, Frank Duffield; Inspectors from Humberside Police, Alan Farrow and Grant Taylor and Councillor Liam Dealtry. In addition Dave Hunter, Crimestoppers North East Regional Manager and Gemma Wilson, Yorkshire & Humberside Regional Manager also presented.

www.crimestoppers-uk.org | 0800 555 1 1 1

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