Campaign launched to increase calls to Crimestoppers

A month-long campaign has been launched to encourage the public to help West Berkshire police catch more criminals

CRIMESTOPPERS, a charity which enables witnesses to deliver information to police anonymously, is being under-used in West Berkshire.

Thames Valley Police and Crimestoppers have today (Monday) announced that they are launching a month-long campaign to encourage more people to use the service in order to help catch more criminals, and thousands of cards will be delivered to homes across Newbury publicising the charity this month.

West Berkshire's deputy local area commander, Ch Insp Judith Johnson, said the purpose of the campaign was to increase the number of calls to help police bring more offenders to justice, and it was revealed that in January this year Crimestoppers only received seven calls relating to incidents in the district.

She said: “When people phone Crimestoppers, we don't tend to get too much information about serious crimes such as burglary and vehicle crime.

“The calls tend to be about drink-driving and traffic offences and we want to try and raise the profile of these types of crime.

“We don't want to raise the fear of crime and we have reduced our year-on-year figures for burglary and vehicle crime, but we want to get the public to help the police bring more offenders to justice.”

She said victims of burglaries - particularly distraction burglaries in their own home - were often heavily affected by the crime and a recent victim of a distraction burglary said she had been shook up by the incident, which had given her nightmares after the event.

A volunteer board member for Thames Valley Crimestoppers, Siri Moorby, said the 24-hour service, which is entirely run by volunteers, gave members of the public the opportunity to give information anonymously that would then be passed on to the police.

She added that there were rewards available for people calling Crimestoppers with information that led to a person being charged.

However, she said the level of reward would depend on the type of crime and it would have to be mentioned by the person at the time of supplying the information and subsequently claimed by that person once someone had been charged with the offence.

The campaign, which will also involve a banner being displayed in Northbrook Street and a local radio advertisement, will run until the end of March.

To call Crimestoppers with anonymous information about a crime, call 0800 555 111 and to find out more information on Crimestoppers, click on the link below.

Meanwhile, to see a video on the campaign, click on the link below.