--- 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
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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.
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"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
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