The Jockey Club and the Racecourse Association (RCA), in April 2005, launched a new partnership with Crimestoppers, the nationwide charity dedicated to helping solve crime. The aim of the initiative is to encourage both the public and the racing industry to come forward with information about criminal activity which relates to racing.

Crimestoppers enables people to contact their freephone number – 0800 555 111 – with information about criminals or crimes. Callers to the number are never asked for their details and calls are not recorded or traced, thus guaranteeing the callers anonymity. The calls are taken by trained police officers and rewards are available for any caller who provides information leading to the charge of a suspect. Such rewards are paid without compromising a caller’s anonymity.

Crimestoppers has a proven track record of success and is a recognised brand all over the country. We are appealing for information on all forms of criminal activity which relate to the sport of horse racing, as well as specifically requesting those who may have information involving corruption or malpractice to use, with confidence, the Crimestoppers number. Calls are answered by trained professionals who can disseminate the information to the British Horseracing Authority's Security Department.

The following questions on the service have come from the Crimestopper’s website, www.crimestoppers-uk.org.

Who answers when you call?
Your call to Crimestoppers will be answered by a person not a machine. Crimestoppers 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.

If for any reason Crimestoppers cannot take your call you will not be asked to leave a message. Please ring back another time – between 8am and 10pm.

What do Crimestoppers want to know?
Crimestoppers 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 neighbour of yours we will not disclose this. We don’t even make a note of your gender.

Crimestoppers 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 on offer?
  
• 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 lets it know 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 the police to deal with. They are the only body in law 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.

The police cannot get a search warrant or make an arrest based solely on anonymous information – there needs to be other intelligence that supports Crimestoppers information. The research they do on Crimestoppers information means they can use it with confidence.

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.

The ACPO Manual of Guidance governs the use of Crimestoppers by law enforcement agencies such as the police

Nothing happened after I rang Crimestoppers. Why?
Remember it may take some time for the police 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 Crimestoppers.