Crime Stoppers is a partnership involving Victoria Police and a community-based charitable organisation who work towards stimulating the general public to help solve crimes.
This is accomplished by the public sharing crime information confidentially to Crime Stoppers. Some unsolved crimes are selected and received publicity via media partners like Neos Kosmos, through which this organisation urges people to help them. People are often afraid that their call can be tracked or they will have to reveal their identity which in some situations becomes an obstacle for them to talk about the crime that they have knowledge about.
This is not the case with the Crime Stoppers program, because any contact with is done in a confidential manner. If you do not wish to leave your name and contact details, you do not have to. Community members can also submit online email submissions. The emails are encrypted ensuring the confidential nature of the information.
Leigh Trinh is the Crime Stoppers Multilingual Media Project Manager and national coordinator for the ethnic media. The Crime Stoppers Multilingual Project was launched by the Victorian Multicultural Commission and the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police in 2004. It is the first of its kind in the world. Trinh says, “We recognised that there is a market out there for people that want to use this service, but they don’t have the confidence, which is why we wanted to establish the multilingual program”.
The three key aspects for this program are, as Leigh says, empowering, raising awareness and providing access. “That’s what it’s all about: awareness, because they are not aware of the project, we make them aware of the project and then there is the aspect of access to the program. As members of ethnic communities, they may find it difficult to access the program due to the language barriers.
If we can help them by accessing and raising awareness, we have empowered them to report the crime,” Trinh explains. For all members of ethnic communities who have a language barrier, Translation and Interpreting Services are available by calling the national number on 13 14 50. “First of all we want people to remember the Crime Stoppers national number – 1800 333 000.
If you are ethnic and you can’t speak English, you can use the interpreting service and get them to connect you to the Crime Stoppers number in order to share a crime in your own language. The beauty of our program is that you don’t have to give any of your personal details out,” says Leigh. “If you know something, if you have seen something – say something,” Leigh Trinh reminds, using the message of the currently ongoing campaign that encourages young people to report the crimes that they have knowledge of.
“It’s good to know when it’s a good time to call Crime Stoppers. If the crime is happening now, call Emergency, on 000. If your information is about crime that has been committed in the past, or is likely to happen in the future, then it would be a matter of interest to Crime Stoppers.”
Trained operators, who receive the calls at Crime Stoppers accept the information about the crime then forward that information to the relevant section of Victorian Police for attention and investigation. Details provided by callers play a very important role, says Leigh. “Your caller identity is not known when you call, so we don’t know who is calling.
Your call to us is not taped and we do not have caller ID. The key feature of this system is that it’s all confidential” he explains. Every call matters. One of the biggest benefits of Crime Stoppers, that has recently celebrated its 25th birthday, is that it helps the community to be a safer place. “We work with communities to keep our community safe.
Crime Stoppers is a resource for the community, it’s created for the people by the people”. Leigh Trinh refers to Mr George Halvatzis, an official Crime Stoppers Ambassador, who has been sending a really strong message to the community, about keeping it safe. “He talks to different groups and communities, and is a good example of someone trying to make a difference in the community.
Every year, with all the ethnic media that come together, we have an annual appreciation function and an award bearing Mr George Halvatzis’s name is given to one of the nominated ethnic media units.” Since 1987, when the Crime Stoppers program started operating in Victoria, the program has received around 500,000 calls that have lead to 13,000 arrests, over $150 million worth of drugs seized, and stolen property recovered.
“Our particular Crime Stoppers Multilingual Project, for people of non English speaking background, is not about being culturally sensitive, because crime is not culturally sensitive. A lot of people say we have to be sensitive when we are working with cultural community, but I don’t think so, we dislike crime just as other nationalities do. It’s a universal language,” concludes Leigh.