Campaigns

Suffolk Crimestoppers runs campaigns in the region, to raise awareness about crimes that might be affecting your communities.

Distraction Burglaries

In 2007, Crimestoppers rolled out its first ever region wide radio campaign to tackle bogus callers. This is a particularly mean crime where a trick or distraction is used to commit burglary, usually in the homes of vulnerable older people living alone. The criminals use many different ploys to gain access and then search for money or anything else of value that they can carry off. Whilst this type of crime doesnt generally involve violence, it does cause deep distress and often permanent trauma amongst the elderly victims.

The main element of the campaign was a radio commercial that asked, "If you know a bogus caller, who do you tell?" An important part of the campaign strategy was to run the commercial throughout our Eastern Region, covering Suffolk, Bedfordshire, Essex, Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. Crimestoppers Deputy Director of Operations Isabel Cross explains why: "It was really important that we got this message across the region simultaneously as the perpetrators may not live where the crimes take place."

To work in conjunction with the campaign, many areas ran additional local initiatives. For example, Suffolk Police commissioned a theatre group with a Tricksters and Scambusters play, presented to groups of older people. In Cambridgeshire an initiative involving banks and building societies, alerted staff to elderly people withdrawing cash in unusual or pressured circumstances.

Along with calls about distraction burglary, calls concerning rogue trading are also currently being assessed.

Listen to our Bogus Caller radio campaign here!