Crimestoppers is the charity which provides the free phone telephone number 0800 555 111 for people to report information about criminals anonymously. This means callers to Crimestoppers are not asked any of their personal details such as their names or address; their calls are not traced or recorded, we do not have caller display. When the information is passed onto the Police it is worded in such a way that the gender, whether the caller is male or female, is not even revealed. We will remove all information that could lead to someone identifying the caller; therefore making sure the caller is safe when the police act on the information.

In an ideal society people should be able to report things directly to the Police but, unfortunately, due to a number of reasons, perhaps fear of retribution or not willing to become involved or perhaps the information concerns a friend or family member, people sometimes are unwilling to come forward and speak directly to the police. Crimestoppers, with its guarantee that caller’s personal details will not be passed on, means that information about crime reaches the police.

Crimestoppers are not the police and therefore the 0800 555 111 number it is not an alternative number to contact them on. Crimestoppers do not take initial details of crimes, road traffic crashes or about incidents that are happening there and then which need the attendance of the police. We solely take details of criminal intelligence, for example the name of someone who has committed a burglary or about to commit one, where and when a drug dealer operates or that a neighbour is driving with no insurance. You could say that we take details about crimes that are about to happen or after they happen but not when they are happening.

Crimestoppers now also takes information on secure emails – again the system is set up in such a way that the senders identity is kept secure and not passed on – which can be accessed from the Crimestoppers website www.crimestoppers-uk.org