Crimestoppers, the crime-fighting charity, has launched a new volunteer board in West Yorkshire with the aim of creating fresh initiatives which will help bring more Yorkshire criminals to justice.
West Yorkshire Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison has welcomed the increased local activity by Crimestoppers and hosted the launch meeting of the new volunteers at his Force HQ.
The main focus of Crimestoppers is to encourage people with information on crime and criminals but who feel unable to call the police to contact Crimestoppers through a freephone or the web and give their information anonymously. Last year in West Yorkshire more than 700 crimes were solved through these anonymous tips and the new volunteer group is aiming to raise that number through special campaigns.
The new West Yorkshire Crimestoppers chairman, media entrepreneur, Peter Harkness introduced eight of his new volunteers and more are being recruited.
A former journalist and head of several publishing and internet companies, Mr Harkness has knowledge of policing and criminal justice having been the publisher specialist police publications.
“We would all urge people to think first of contacting the police direct, but I realise that contacting the police can be a rather daunting task for people who may be afraid that they may have to give evidence in court or criminals would find out who they are. For these people Crimestoppers provides a totally confidential way to make sure the crucial information gets to the police anonymously.” said Mr Harkness.
“What I like about the Crimestoppers charity is that gives people the chance to do what they know is the right thing without any personal risk. The charity is particularly interested in serious crimes – crimes that hurt people and cause a lot of economic damage.
“Calls to Crimestoppers in West Yorkshire are already very high – last year almost 7,000 calls and about one-in-10 directly helped to clear up a crime. That is impressive but our objective now is to increase the number of calls even more,” he said.
“We have good team of people on our committee and we will be recruiting more over the next few months and I am looking forward to working on future projects that will help in the fight against crime.”
Chief Constable, Sir Norman Bettison attended the re-launch meeting with Det Chief Supt Ingrid Lee and said: “This is all about local people focussing on and recognising local issues and I am delighted to see that people are prepared to connect with West Yorkshire Police to engage in the Crimestoppers opportunities.
“There have been 7,000 calls in the last year .The call to arrest ratio is comparable to anywhere else in the country and I am proud that the public of West Yorkshire are prepared to work with Crimestoppers and help us to detect crime.”
Crimestoppers is independent of the Police or Government and is a registered charity. The Crimestoppers freephone on 0800 555 111 runs 24 hours.
