Crimestoppers, East Belfast District Policing and Community Safety Partnership and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have launched the Filthy Rich campaign to assist in the process of tackling criminality in East Belfast.
Mark Hallas, Chief Executive of Crimestoppers explains what happens when someone contacts Crimestoppers: “It is really important for people to understand what happens when they ring Crimestoppers. Their call is answered at a call centre in England. There is no caller ID, so the person taking the call can’t see the phone number that the call is being made from. This means that the caller remains totally anonymous. Similarly, the Crimestoppers number does not appear on your telephone bill, a further measure that helps to ensure complete anonymity”.
“The caller isn’t asked for their name or any personal information; they are simply given an opportunity to share information that they may have about an incident or suspicious behaviour. For example; the caller may wish to talk about a house in their neighbourhood that a lot of different people are calling to, as they may think the property is linked to drug dealing or prostitution. They may have seen an assault, a burglary or someone attacking a car or house and want to share a description of the person or provide a name of someone that they think has been involved.”
Mr Hallas adds: “Any information Crimestoppers receives is then submitted to a central point within the Police Service of Northern Ireland and forwarded to the relevant policing area. Officers review this. This information can be instrumental in shaping operations, it can result in searches being conducted which lead to drugs being seized. Similarly, it can result in searches being conducted where counterfeit goods are seized or where items stolen in burglaries are recovered.”
Visit https://crimestoppers-uk.org.
