--- begin forwarded text Date: 5 Oct 99 19:05:05 EDT From: ROBERT HARPER <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Ignition Point <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: IP: Anonymous email snitching to police in UK Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: ROBERT HARPER <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_463000/463213.stm Friday, October 1, 1999 Published at 17:55 GMT 18:55 UK UK Web war against criminals hots up Cyber-informants have been promised anonymity --------------------------------------------- The war against crime in the UK is being beefed up with the creation of a new Website that allows members of the public to e-mail tip-offs to police. The Crimestoppers Trust has had a Web presence for a couple of years but previously relied on the public telephoning in pieces of information. Now people can e-mail tip-offs to the new site, which is being sponsored by the Trinity Mirror Group and hosted on their Internet service provide. Crimestoppers says e-mails will be filtered to strip them of any information identifying the sender, thus preserving the trust's pledge of anonymity for anyone who gets in touch. Wide range of inquiries Those who are still obsessed with secrecy can always send information via anonymous Web servers, which cover up their e-mail addresses. The site will be used by forces all over the UK to elicit information on crimes ranging from indecent exposure right up to murder. The most prominent inquiries mentioned on the site are the Jill Dando murder investigation in west London and the killing of 80-year-old Doris Dawson, her daughter Mandy and granddaughters Emily and Katie in Swansea. Dozens of other unsolved crimes will be placed on the site although cases are still being compiled in two areas - Scotland and the Midlands. Global reach The new Website was welcomed by Home Secretary Jack Straw, who said: "Fighting crime is not just down to the government and the police. "It's a partnership that requires the support of everybody." The trust says the site is designed to complement the current freephone number - 0800 555111 - and not replace it. Intelligence provided via the freephone number leads to the arrest and charging of around 14 people a day, including one person every 12 days being charged with murder. Earlier this year Scotland Yard introduced a new section on its site, where it sought the public's help in finding wanted people. E-mails have been flooding in to the Yard from all over the world. One man was arrested earlier this year and charged with a murder in London after a man e-mailed the Metropolitan Police from the Netherlands with information. He is now awaiting trial. The Yard's wanted page is also hosting appeals from other forces - Northumbria police has put up a sketch of a man suspected of the attempted murder of an IRA informer in Whitley Bay in June this year. ____________________________________________________________________ Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1 ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** <www.telepath.com/believer> ********************************************** --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
