Charity swamped by victims

A CRIME-FIGHTING charity is being bombarded with calls because people cannot get through to the police’s 101 non-emergency service.

Crimestoppers says the increase reflects the surge in demand for frontline officers – and police forces’ struggle to respond.

The 101 non-emergency number was introduced across Britain in 2011. It was designed to replace local police station numbers and cut the number of 999 calls. But in the first four years almost three-and-a-half million calls went unanswered, according to new figures.

Yesterday, Crimestoppers revealed a significant rise in information it was passing on to police. Last year it directed 152,000 reports of possible offences to police across the UK.

Crimestoppers’ chief executive Mark Hallas said: ‘There is in some parts of the country an element of frustration with 101. If they call us they will be answered pretty quickly. Sometimes people will contact us because they are struggling to get through on 101.’

Some two-thirds of the calls and online messages the service receives are not passed on to police as staff are aware of the increasing demands on police forces nationally. But information passed on in 2016-17 led to 3,300 people being arrested and charged, the seizure of £7.4million worth of drugs and the recovery of property valued at £814,000.

Crimestoppers is also being used by hundreds of thousands of young people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, who are uncomfortable talking to police.