Evaluating the value of Crimestoppers to Police Scotland

Crimestoppers is a charity which allows individuals to give information anonymously about crime. Since it was established in 1988 the charity has received over 1.4 million pieces of actionable information, leading to the arrest or charge of more than 122,000 individuals, recovery of £126 million of stolen property, and seizing of illegal drugs with a street value of £298 million. On average, across the UK, 20 people are arrested each day, and one person is charged with murder every ten days as a result of Crimestoppers information. No evaluation of the Crimestoppers service had ever been undertaken in Scotland. The recent reform of Scottish policing was accompanied by a need to ensure Police Scotland receives the best service from the agencies it uses to assist in the investigation of crime, of which Crimestoppers is one. We carried out a study, with funding from SIPR, evaluating the interaction between Crimestoppers and Police Scotland, determining whether there is an effective flow of information from the public into the police intelligence system via Crimestoppers and assessing the benefit of this information to the police.