SA LANDS CRIME STOPPERS CONFERENCE

BLOW the whistle on crime and wrongdoing – this is the message from the chairman of the annual Crime Stoppers International Conference, which will be held in South Africa for the first time next month.

The event, in its 35th year, will be a chance for the country to showcase its crime-fighting successes and innovations to a global audience, while picking up on the best practices elsewhere.

“We were first in the world to use SMS technology in the fight against crime, and our successes and projects continue to impress the international crime stoppers community,” said Crime Line’s Yusuf Abramjee.

As chairman of the conference, which is set to take place in Cape Town from October 12 to 15, Abramjee said he was honoured that South Africa would host it for the first time.

Crime Stoppers is an International body that is active in over 26 countries around the world through programmes driven by anonymous tipoffs that are passed on to law enforcement agencies.

“They effectively bring together the public, the police and the media to fight crime.

“In fact, Crime Stoppers programmes solve a crime every 14 minutes somewhere in the world,” Abramjee said.

“Every year they host a training conference to bring the global crime-fighting community together to network, learn, debate and ultimately take advancements and innovations back to their respective countries.” He said South Africa would use this opportunity to learn and to impart innovations. “The theme of the conference is It’s Time, and by extension, I believe it’s also the time of the whistle-blower.

“Any person who acts on his or her conscience and imparts information of wrongdoing to a relevant authority is a whistle-blower,” Abramjee said.

“As much as it is the civil and moral duty of people to blow the whistle on crime, law enforcement and the judicial system have a greater duty to protect whistle-blowers.

“Crime Line, our partners from the police’s Crime Stop, and Crime Stoppers International, are driven by the protection of whistle-blowers.

“We offer a multi-platform solution for members of the public to expose wrongdoing without having to reveal their identities or expose themselves to retribution. Anonymity is key,” he said.

Issues that would be addressed at the conference included human and drug trafficking, crimes against women and children, and financial and cyber crimes.

“Criminals are innovative, and masters at evading justice,” Abramjee said.

“It’s time for us to get ahead of the curve. We deal with highly organised groups that are not confined by bureaucracy, red tape or the law. The answer is not anarchy, nor the so-called kangaroo courts or ‘jungle justice’.

“Anarchy breeds more anarchy. Instead, we need to become more organised, to match organised crime.”