Community safety officers in Essex are aiming to build on the force's strong relationship with Crimestoppers for the coming year.

Crimestoppers has been in Essex since 1988 and exists to encourage public involvement in the detection of crime by providing the means to give information anonymously and receive an award if it leads to an arrest.

During those 15 years nearly 14,000 calls have been received relating to Essex cases, leading to more than 1,000 arrests and the recovery of £3.77million worth of stolen property and illegal substances.

Last year, 71 arrests were made in Essex as a result of calls, and those calls included 27 for murder, 29 for robbery, 250 for vehicle crime and 28 for sexual offences.

However, Essex's rate of arrests per calls made is three per cent behind the national average of 9.6 per cent, and community safety officers hope to improve on this.

Crime reduction inspector, Dave Northcott, said: "Crimestoppers isn't just for major crimes, but can also be used for smaller investigations in a targeted way.

"In Essex we've made great use of the charity over the last 15 years, and we want to further that relationship this year."

In the eastern region, Crimestoppers works from a call centre in Norfolk via the number 0800 555111, which works across the UK and is free from landlines.

The centre is open from 8am to 10pm on weekdays and 9am to 5pm at weekends, and is likely to go 24 hours in the future.

Published Tuesday January 20, 2004

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