Information passed anonymously to Crimestoppers has seen more than 200 criminals brought to justice across Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Telford & Wrekin following another bumper year for the crime-solving charity, the West Mercian arm of the crime-reporting line reports.
Figures for January to December 2007 show that of the thousands of calls received on the 0800 555 111 hotline, a total of 1616 calls were forwarded to police for action – in many cases providing information that police would not otherwise have had.
The information received in those calls has meant that police across the West Mercia police force area have been able to arrest and charge 206 people for a variety of offences including, robbery, burglary, theft, vehicle crime and drugs.
The past year also saw West Mercia Crimestoppers break the 3,000 barrier for the number of arrests and charges brought since it was formed in 1994, with total reaching 3,044 at year end.
In addition, more than £1.8 million of property has been recovered thanks to information passed to West Mercia Crimestoppers in its lifetime – with some £213,343 in 2007 alone. Police also seized £74,222 of drugs last year, bringing the 14-year total to almost £800,000.
The figures mean that, across the West Mercia region, an arrest and charge is made for every 7.8 calls received, proving the effectiveness of Crimestoppers in the fight against crime.
“The past year has undoubtedly been a successful one for Crimestoppers, with more and more people choosing to pick up the telephone and pass on information about crime,” said Jenny Wynn, chair of the Crimestoppers West Mercia board.
“The challenge is to get even more people to do the same in 2008 so that further criminals can be brought to justice.
“People feel much more at ease talking to Crimestoppers because they know that it really is completely anonymous. Criminals rely on others saying nothing, but Crimestoppers offers the chance to tackle crime without getting directly involved – picking up the phone is all it takes and no-one will ever know who made the call.”
Every call is valuable to Crimestoppers. Often your information will be used to help solve existing investigations but on other occasions it can be completely new to the police, enabling them to tackle crimes that they would otherwise be unaware of.
Call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
