Saturday, February 27, 2010
CALLS KEEP COMING AND THEY NEED TO
After four months of operations calls continue to come into Crimestoppers which confirms that the service offered is wanted and needed. Nearly 2200 calls have been received with over 900 categorised as actionable, that is, there is enough information in quantity and quality for the Police to take some action. The dominant crime reported continues to be drugs. Not surprising given the misery that this crime brings to family, friends and employers. Keep that information coming because this crime is directly tied to a number of other crimes, crimes involving violence, both domestic and common assaults, burglaries to support the drug habit, property damage and possession of illegal weapons to name but a few. However, it is important that people with information about crime and criminals don't ignore what they see as lesser crimes. These invariably embolden young criminals to commit more serious crimes. One crime which is very prevalent in our society is domestic violence in all its forms. It is important that relatives and friends who know this is occurring do not ignore it. What are you going to feel like, if you find that one day, as a result of domestic violence you knew about, resulted in someone being killed? We are all responsible to ensure that we look out for the most vulnerable people in our society, especially children. Children should be able to trust adults to look after them and ensure their safety. There are numerous recent incidents where adults failed innocent children. If you have information about crime ring 0800 555 111 or use the online message form on this website. DON'T BE IN THE POSITION OF HAVING HAD IGNORED A CRIME WHICH IN THE END LEAD TO A DEATH PARTICULARLY OF A CHILD.
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The thing that worries me about anonymous reporting is that it gives license to anyone with a grudge to assassinate someone's character .
ReplyDeleteI have seen someone in a commercial dispute with 2 people suffer a rash of false "harrassment" reports against him ( which were never put to him directly by Police ). However , the growing police file of "complaints" enabled the false complainers to then justify calling the police to come out & intimidate the complainee whenever they saw him close by going about his lawful business . They would claim he had harrassed them & what could he do ? 2 against one .
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ReplyDeleteJim, for me to say that no false or mischievous information is ever received would be incorrect. However using the UK experience, which extends for over 20 years and a million calls, the percentage of these calls is extremely low. Often the Call Centre, which employs very experienced call takers, pick up on these calls. If the call does get through to the Police I have every confidence the Police will not waste much time on the complaint. Information from a Crimestoppers source usually helps build up an intelligence picture, either by confirming earlier information or initiating further investigation. So mischievous information would usually stand alone, unsupported by other information. The Police would then not take any action. They have plenty of real investigative work to keep them occupied. I think we are fortunate in NZ to have a Police Force which has a very high reputation for professionalism albeit, the occasional person goes off the rails. Although frustrating for the Police leadership and the public one has to be realistic in a force of 10,000. As Chief of Army I knew that most soldiers were a credit to themselves and their families, this country and the Army but occasionally a small number let the vast majority down by failing to measure up to the Army values. I found it frustrating because it received considerable media attention which took the focus off all the positive work soldiers did. However that's the reality in a large organisation.
ReplyDeleteJim, I trust this assists you to have confidence in Crimestoppers and the processes we use. Thanks for you comment.
Regards Lou
There are always doubters but it's disturbing that people are more worried about the low chance of character assasination(which presumably wouldn't hold true anyway if the person is innocent) than the high chance of actually catching some of these criminals. That's human nature, probably tells you as lot about the person who wrote it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. You are correct. We don't not design or use systems because of the occasional irresponsible person using it in a way that is inappropriate. If we did this, we would not have the current Social Welfare system, because some irresponsible, selfish citizens misuse it. The vast majority use the system as a helping hand during hard times and that is what it is designed for. Thank you again for your positive and sensible comment
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