Every five calls to Lancashire Crimestoppers last year resulted in an arrest – the second best rate in the country.
New figures show a total of 2,616 ‘actionable’ calls were made to Lancashire Crimestoppers between April 2008 and March 2009. For every 4.9 of these, an arrest was made by police, making the Lancashire branch of the crime-fighting charity the second best-performing in the country. In addition, March saw a record number of 75 arrests in one month in Lancashire from more than 200 calls.
Crimestoppers operates across the UK and enables anyone to provide information about those involved in or suspected of being involved in criminal activity without ever revealing their identity. All information received by Lancashire Crimestoppers is valuable and can lead directly to offenders being arrested and charged.
Kay Armstrong, Crimestoppers co-ordinator at Lancashire Constabulary, said: "Lancashire Crimestoppers has enjoyed another excellent year and has maintained its strong performance. I am delighted these results place us among the best in the country.
"The public plays a fundamental part in our success and without their calls we could not have achieved these impressive arrest rates. I would like to personally thank all those who have provided anonymous information in the last year – your support has made the streets of Lancashire even safer.
"I would also like to appeal for people to continue calling the charity with information over the coming 12 months to build on this success."
Gail Porter, Chair of the Lancashire Crimestoppers Board, added: "Once again Lancashire Crimestoppers has shown how effective they can be in helping to address crime in the county. The figures demonstrate that the communities in Lancashire can have confidence that their information will be used to bring offenders to justice. On behalf of the Lancashire Crimestoppers Board I would like to thank all the volunteers, sponsors and callers for their support."
Crimestoppers is supported by more than 500 volunteers and works with the police, media, businesses and other agencies including HM Customs and Trading Standards.
If you or someone you know has information concerning crime in your neighbourhood, call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
