To mark its twentieth anniversary, the UK charity, Crimestoppers, has given its
www.crimestoppers-uk.org website a complete makeover. From today, the new site which uses the latest in online technology, goes live.
Crimestoppers is also delighted to announce that FACT (The Federation Against Copyright Theft) has come on board as site sponsor for three months. Since last October, FACT has been working in partnership with Crimestoppers to encourage reporting of criminal activity in audio-visual piracy and to draw attention to the serious impact counterfeiting can have on wider communities.
The new website has been designed by Precedent Communications and features a number of enhanced features, such as case studies, a crime prevention area, polls and information in different languages.
One of the special features is a purpose-built appeals management system designed specifically for police forces to enter appeals into a central database. Users can monitor the appeals through sophisticated search methods and then send valuable and potentially life-saving information to Crimestoppers quickly and anonymously.
The search functionality for the popular ‘Most Wanted’ section (www.crimestoppers-uk.org/mostwanted/) – where visitors can help solve crimes – has been vastly improved where you can now search by crime type, region, postcode and specific appeal. RSS feeds are also an option if you want to be kept up to date with new appeals in a specific region.
There is an increased emphasis on local news which can now be accessed from any page on the site. A survey carried out by Crimestoppers, showed that more than 70% of visitors to its site were looking for local information.
Crimestoppers’ CEO, Michael Laurie CBE, said: “For twenty years Crimestoppers has relied on the public to use the 0800 555 111 telephone number to report crime anonymously and we hope that through this new website even more people will be aware of our charity and how they can help to remove criminals from our streets.
“I am delighted to welcome FACT on board as our first-ever site sponsor. We share a common interest in tracking down serious criminal activity in piracy and copyright theft.”
Kieron Sharp, FACT Director General, added: “FACT is delighted to continue to support the work of Crimestoppers which has been a valuable partner for us already. Audio-visual piracy is criminal activity and such activity brings harm to local communities by attracting other crimes and much of the trade in counterfeit DVDs is controlled by organised criminal networks.
Our enforcement activity is combined with the work done by the Industry Trust for IP Awareness which seeks to change attitudes regarding the purchase of knock-off DVDs.”
