Warwickshire Crimestoppers Goes 24/7

Crimestoppers, the charity working to help stop crime, is officially opening its out of hours 24/7 call handing bureau this week and the public can now call Crimestoppers, day or night, seven days a week, to pass on information about crime.

Crimestoppers calls will continue to be taken locally during office hours, but out of hours calls are being answered at the call handling centre in Godalming in Surrey. At Godalming, a team of trained officers will take anonymous calls from the public about crime and criminals on its trusted 0800 555 111 number. The call Bureau will cover the shortfall in answering calls between 10pm & 8am on weekdays and from 5pm to 9am at weekends.

The Bureau has been running since April 2005, but is officially launched on October 27. Since April, over 5000 actionable pieces of intelligence have been disseminated to Force Intelligence Bureaux nationwide.

Cassim Virani, Vice Chair of Warwickshire Crimestopper, said: "This new call centre further enhances the Crimestoppers service in the county. We know that many calls have been lost in the past because there hasn't been a local call handler available to take them out of hours. Now anyone wishing to pass on information about criminal activity will be able to talk to someone any time of the day or night.

He also said: "Crimestoppers has solved all types of crime in the past and anyone who knows about criminal activity or has witnessed a crime being committed but doesn't want to give their name, can call 0800 555 111 anonymously and pass it on."

Warwickshire Crimestoppers Police Liasion Officer, Steve Probert said: "Callers to Crimestoppers provide intelligence proven to help us solve crimes. The promise of anonymity helps vulnerable people come forward, and Crimestoppers is now available for them whenever they find the courage to call. Warwickshire Police support this charity's valuable work.

So far this year, calls to Warwickshire Crimestoppers have led to important intelligence gathering about all aspects of criminality - from serious assaults to drug dealing and onto the arrests of people wanted by Police. The information supplied has led to positive results that the police would not have achieved without the charities anonymity guarantee to it's callers.

The Home Office carried out research which helped to identify the need for a 24/7 service and they provided additional funding for Crimestoppers to establish this centralised call centre for the UK.

For more information about Crimestoppers in Warwickshire, please visit the Crimestoppers section by clicking this link