Crime Stoppers SA results show that making a call can make a real difference

Posted on 05/04/2018

Cocky criminals who think they are above the law and immune from capture should think again, with the 2017 program results from Crime Stoppers SA showing that plenty of people are prepared to step up and provide information about a range of wanted persons and illegal activities.

Crime Stoppers South Australia chair, Ms Sharon Hanlon, said nearly 19,500 calls were received during the 2017 calendar year from people wanting to share information, resulting in a total of 911 apprehensions made.

“While not every call that we receive necessarily results in an immediate apprehension, every piece of information can make a difference by advancing an investigation or providing intelligence that can be passed to police and further explored by investigators,” Ms Hanlon said.

“During 2017 we continued to focus our efforts on letting people know that Crime Stoppers is an independent not-for-profit organisation that is not part of SAPOL – and we hope that people can be confident knowing that when they provide information to the program then all efforts are made to protect their anonymity,” she said.

“Our message is that we don’t need to know who you are, just what you know. That is why when someone uses our report suspicious behaviour app then their user data information is automatically stripped out, and when they call the hotline they are under no obligation to identify who they are to a call taker.”

Throughout 2017, Crime Stoppers SA continued to act as the trusted link between the community and police in support of Operation Persist, calling on people to come forward with information about unsolved cold case murders, including the disappearance and presumed murder of Port Lincoln woman, Susan Goodwin, and murder of Mid-North man, Martin Meffert.

“At a national level we participated in Operation Rogue Radar to shine a light on wanted fugitives – with two of SA’s three nominated targets now behind bars. We also supported the National Firearm Amnesty, which saw more than 26,000 firearms – including a homemade sub-machine gun and grenade – seized or surrendered to police.”

The 2017 program results for Crime Stoppers SA include:

• 19,439 calls from people wanting to share information about criminals and their illegal activities;
• 4,222 online and other reports lodged using the Report Suspicious Behaviour app or visiting crimestopperssa.com.au
• 911 apprehensions including wanted fugitives, arsonists, and suspects wanted for robberies, theft and assault;
• 1,901 charges laid for drug dealing, firearms, robbery, serious assaults and child pornography offences; and
• 79 firearms seized – including ammunition and a range of illegal accessories.

DRUGS

• 1266 plants and 241kg of cannabis (which equates to 86,229 street deals);
• Shut down of 12 clandestine labs;
• 3kg of amphetamine seized (equates to 16, 920 street deals);
• 477 ecstasy tablets confiscated.

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