Who answers when you call?
What does Crime Stoppers want to know?
What type of questions will I be asked?
What happens after I’ve said all I know?
Nothing happened after I called Crime Stoppers. Why?
 

Who answers when you call?

Your call to Crime Stoppers will be answered by a person not a machine. Crime Stoppers call operators are specially trained in talking to our callers. They do not use a script or fill in a standard form with your information. Each call is individual so our call handlers are responsive to your needs and the information you have.

What does Crime Stoppers want to know?

Crime Stoppers wants your information not your name. You will be asked questions about the information you are giving us - but you will not be asked your name, address, or anything that will allow us to identify you.

Our call operators are not allowed to let the police know anything about you which may reveal your identity, e.g. if the call is about a neighbor of yours we will not disclose this. We don’t even make a note of your gender.

Crime Stoppers want to do the best but we need as much information as possible from you in order to pass useful data onto the police. This means that our call operator will ask you questions about what you know. This helps check that your information can be acted upon by the police - the more detail they have the more likely they will be able to take action.

NEVER put yourself at risk or abuse a position of trust to discover information about crime or criminals.

What type of questions will I be asked?

This will obviously depend on the crime and what you know. Many of our calls are about drug dealing - these are some of the questions you may be asked, but it’s not an exhaustive list.

• Where are the drugs being sold?
• What makes you think they are being sold there?
• What types of drugs are being sold?
• Do you know how much they are being sold for?
• When is the location the busiest?
• Is there any system used by which the dealer makes it known that they are ‘open for business’ e.g. a bedroom light on?
• Where do they keep the drugs?
• Does the dealer come out of the house to meet people?
• Do you know any of the hiding places for the drugs, in a shed / car etc?
• Are there regular cars pulling up and do you know the registrations?
• Do you know when supplies arrive? This may lead to a supplier further up the chain.

Remember

NEVER put yourself at risk or abuse a position of trust to discover information about crime or criminals.

What happens after I’ve said all I know?

This information is then handed over to law enforcement to deal with. They are the only body who can investigate crimes and arrest and charge people, in order to bring them to justice.

The police have to thoroughly research the information you give us in order to act on it. This ensures that information is correct and not given to us maliciously in order to set someone up.

Once the information has been researched the police will allocate this to an appropriate officer or team to deal with. This could mean more research or action may be taken.

Nothing happened after I called Crime Stoppers. Why?

It may take some time for law enforcement to act on the information you have given. There may be many reasons for this - the information may be crucial to a larger investigation and an action may take place much later on, or the information may remain on file helping to solve crime at a later date. So even if you don’t see a quick resolution, don’t think your information hasn’t been of use to Crime Stoppers.