Inside police partnerships

The partnership between the charity Crimestoppers and the UK Police Service provides and promotes a service to all members of the community, to enable direct participation in the solving and reduction of crimes.

Crimestoppers is a strategic partnership with the police, the community and the charity, Crimestoppers Trust, to meet common goals in building a safer, strong society, which provides high grade intelligence that directly delivers police and Home Office targets.

The charity provides the 0800 555 111 service, enabling the police to access a unique intelligence set, directly increasing detection rates. The police provide resources to manage this intelligence, from developing anonymous information to making an arrest, ensuring that the information given to Crimestoppers is used to the best effect, delivering key objectives in crime detection.

The Partnership is supported by the ACPO Crimestoppers Working Group, lead by ACC Lynne Owens, Surrey Police.

Follow the links below to learn more about Crimestoppers and how it can help your policing:

ACPO Manual

The Benefits of using Crimestoppers

Who is Crimestoppers aimed at?

What Crimestoppers is not

How does Crimestoppers work?

Crimestoppers and Disclosure

What types of crime do Crimestoppers take information on?

Rewards

If you want more information on how to get involved and use Crimestoppers in your policing please contact your force's Crimestoppers office.

ACPO Manual

The partnership and operational processes between the charity Crimestoppers and the UK Police Service is described in the ACPO Manual of Guidance: Law Enforcement Use of Crimestoppers.

Download the ACPO Manual of Guidance: Law Enforcement Use of Crimestoppers.

The Benefits of using Crimestoppers

• It helps to solve crimes by receiving and passing on vital information, which frequently identifies offenders previously unknown to the police
• Crimestoppers' information brings quantifiable savings in police time and money
• Callers often provide the names and locations of suspects - it provides contact with otherwise inaccessible sources of information
• Moreover, many callers become regulars after their confidence in anonymity is confirmed. Local communities have seen tangible benefits of Crimestoppers' campaigns in their area
• Adjacent communities often demand similar campaigns when these successes become known
• Greatly improves police/community relations with a feeling of working together to combat crime in your communities. Best practice that has been developed across the UK is available to be shared and developed
• Novel and innovative uses have been introduced to yield startlingly successful results. It prevents victimisation of people through the destabilisation and removal of active criminals from communities

Who is Crimestoppers aimed at?

Crimestoppers is aimed at people who have knowledge of a crime or criminals but feel they cannot approach the police. They may:

• Not be prepared to ‘get involved'
• Be frightened because they fear retribution or revenge
• Be compromised by their family
• Be compromised because they are criminals themselves
• Not trust the police

More than 200 people per day ring Crimestoppers with useful information about crime.

What Crimestoppers is not

Crimestoppers is one of many intelligence gathering tools and certainly will not replace traditional methods. It is also not:

• A substitute for the 999 emergency response number
• A crime recording alternative
• A preferred option to existing crime prevention methods
• Reactive – the Crimestoppers system has 20 years of practice in the UK and has systems in place for dealing with each call and piece of information.

How does Crimestoppers work?

Calls to the 0800 555 111 phone number are received by the Crimestoppers Bureau or one of the smaller Crimestoppers Offices around the UK. Once the information has been received by Crimestoppers, it is given to police officers to follow up.

All information reports are, however, sanitised. Any reference which may identify the caller will be removed from the information. Crimestoppers' call handlers will not give information to the police such as the gender, age or ethnicity of the caller. The anonymity of our caller is always of paramount importance.

All Crimestoppers' information is put onto a database and then prioritised. The report is then forwarded to Divisional Intelligence for research and tasking within the guidelines of the National Intelligence Model. You may be the person who has to deal with this information.

Crimestoppers and Disclosure

In consultation with the Crown Prosecutions Service and ACPO Crime Committee Disclosure, guidelines have been produced. A summary is given below but full details can be obtained from the Crimestoppers officer for your force.

• The existence of Crimestoppers Intelligence reports should not be known to the suspect
• The OIC and/or the disclosure officer has a responsibility to retain all papers obtained in the course of a criminal investigation that may be relevant to the investigation
• When a full file of evidence is submitted to the CPS, the existence of Crimestoppers intelligence reports should be listed as sensitive material on MG6D
• Crimestoppers material would not normally be considered until secondary disclosure

What types of crime do Crimestoppers take information on?

Crimestoppers will take information on any crime and pass this information onto the relevant law enforcement organisation. For more details on this look at our section: What information do we want?

Rewards

Crimestoppers Rewards are paid by the charity for information that leads to an arrest and charge. Less than 2% of those eligible ask for a reward, proving it is clearly not a significant motivating factor for the majority of callers. The process for paying rewards keeps the caller anonymous.

However, offering rewards can bring in results. Crimestoppers can offer an enhanced reward of up to £10,000 which is still paid anonymously. There are, however, criteria to apply for an enhanced reward, which Senior Investigating officers should be aware of prior to approaching the charity.