You know of Crimestoppers as the charity behind the 0800 confidential crime reporting line. Now it’s offering something even more directly useful to the corporate security manager – an Integrity Line, that banks and any other organisations can pay for, to get employee concerns reported anonymously and securely. Dave Cording, Crimestoppers’ Director of Operations talks to Mark Rowe.
Dave Cording, pictured, begins the story in 2005, when Crimestoppers opened its centralised call handling bureau, in Surrey. Crimestoppers’ offices by the way are based in south London, a stone’s throw from Morden Underground station, the end of the line. But that call centre was very much the beginning of extra lines. Dave Cording, himself a former senior police officer, says: "We realised there was potential demand from the police service, who have their own wrong-doing lines." Dave Cording mentioned next HMIC thematic inspection of performance standards, that recommended that a third party provide that reporting service, so that police (and civilian staff) can feel they’re being listened to by an independent organisation. Crimestoppers launched such a line into that market in 2006, and 17 police forces are takers of it. Banks were the first private sector takers of the Crimestoppers’ Integrity Line. The charity now feels it’s time to offer the service online, like some competitor services. "We believe there’s a market there; we are half the costs of competitors, because we are a non-profit-organisation. Wrong-doing by employees is clearly a concern to management and what we offer is a very secure, anonymous service. We don’t try and force a person to give their details; we let them give it [information] anonymously, because we have been doing it for 21 years." That is, 21 years is the time Crimestoppers has run in this country. <br><br>One point to make is that as with the main Crimestoppers taking calls from the public, some people do feel strongly enough to want to give their details. In that case, the Crimestoppers call handler would explain that in that case the caller would become a witness with all that may mean. Talking of the handlers, Dave Cording does stress that his call centre is not rating staff on how fast they move a call, nor are they trying to sell a product; they’re graded on how long they spend on the phone, trying to extract information for police or the corporate client, ‘and that’s the big difference; we don’t complain when a member of staff has been on the phone five minutes, because they are probably getting lots of good information." <br><br>As for the recession, Dave Cording says that it’s early days, ‘but it’s fair to say, with my experience with the charity; we know that in any recession, there’s always an increase in criminality, and opportunistic people; and we know that employees may be tempted to do things they would not otherwise have done. They are all feeling the pinch. I fully expect a growth in business, both on the public side [the Crimestoppers 0800 555 111 number] and the Integrity Line services." <br><br>On a recent visit to the Liverpool head office of Shop Direct Group, the group security spoke of their reporting line, which paid for itself thanks to one call leading to a saving on loss. Dave Cording agreed that a line can pay for itself in that way: the first banking client in one phone call saved more than £400,000. Nor is it only the service sector; in motor manufacturing, say, it could be that one bagful of parts if carried away by a dishonest employee could be worth thousands. "You can see how easily with one phone call you can save a significant amount of money." And if you’re interested in becoming a client, Dave Cording invites you to visit the Surrey call handling centre.
