---

Crimestoppers (Great Yarmouth)

I crave your indulgence, Mr. Chope, as I turn to the multi-agency operation Pentameter 2, which launched last October to protect victims of the sex trafficking industry. Anonymous Crimestoppers intelligence has assisted the police in Leicestershire in rescuing six females from brothel premises, closing four brothels down, and arresting two persons who were subsequently charged with running a brothel and controlling a prostitute. Through its youth arm, Shadow CS, Crimestoppers is now targeting the London boroughs that are hardest hit by gun and knife crime. It is through collaborative partnerships and joint working between the police, businesses and the media that Crimestoppers has had the success that it has had, and will continue to have, I am sure, for the next 25 years and beyond. Another element that is key to Crimestoppers having any success at all is the information provided to it by members of the public. Without people picking up the phone to make that call, the thousands of arrests and solved cases would not have been possible. So as we celebrate 25 years of successful crime stopping, we should also stop to recognise the individuals who come forward. Often that is not an easy thing to do. People may feel under pressure not to come forward because of the potential consequences; they may know the person who they are reporting. Crimestoppers teams and the general public must be congratulated on their efforts to bring criminals to justice. Those behind the scenes can look back with pride and highlight the fact that it all started in Great Yarmouth. Crimestoppers has gone international. The fact is that without the two gentlemen who started the project, Jim Carter and Mick Cole, who are here today, the 80,000 or so arrests that have been made, not just in the UK but internationally, since Crimestoppers began would never have been made. I pay personal tribute to those two individuals from Great Yarmouth, to the community in Great Yarmouth for taking the initiative forward, and to successive Governments who have supported it. Most of all, I encourage as many people as possible to use the anonymous phone lines and to listen to the words of Carol Saldinack, who is a constituent of mine. She did not have anonymity but she gave up her two sons because she thought that that was the right thing to do. She says that it is up to socially responsible people in society to use whatever measures are available, including Crimestoppers, to report criminal activity, wherever it takes place, so that we can help the police, and help the Government to bring down the crime statistics.