Residents are being urged to ‘speak up’ and anonymously report incidents of dangerous driving to CrimeStoppers, as the charity launches a campaign to tackle road safety in Frome.
At the full town council meeting this month lead councillor for road safety in Frome, Cllr Anita Collier, said that recent fatal incidents on the A361 have been causing ‘so much anxiety’ in the town but welcomed CrimeStoppers’ new campaign, which aims to improve the safety of roads in and around Frome.
“We are going to be focusing on messaging in the Frome area and other rural areas around Avon and Somerset to amplify our call to action for people to speak up. If they know somebody is regularly and persistently drink/drug driving, they must report it,” explained regional manager for CrimeStoppers, Karen Macdonald, who was giving a presentation at the town council meeting about the independent charity and its new road safety campaign in the area.
“The way road safety falls into CrimeStoppers is mostly around people who are persistently driving who are disqualified or without insurance and other documents and also people who are regularly and persistently drink/drug driving.
“We do get a lot of calls; that information is passed to the local police for investigation and people do lose their licences because they are stopped when that information is processed.
“An example is in one area, somebody was boasting in a pub that they could drink whatever they wanted because ‘the police are stupid and they will never get caught’ forgetting that people have ears, eyes and telephones and computers and know about CrimeStoppers. That person has had their licence taken away from them, they have been prosecuted and they will no longer be, for the foreseeable future, a risk on the roads to people’s safety. It is a really, really useful way in close-knit communities and in communities where people are frightened to speak up in-case they are going to get retribution.”
Karen said that CrimeStoppers had been awarded funds from the Police Community Trust to focus some of its promotions and messaging around road safety in and around the Frome area.
“If [people] know that somebody is drug or drink driving, then report it because then something can be done. We do know that at least 30% of fatal traffic road accidents are attributed to people who have been drink/drug driving. We will be targeting this area whilst working with the police, the council and other agencies.”
Cllr Collier said, “It is really heartwarming to know that you are going to be looking very closely around this area and focusing some of your campaigns and promotions around Frome, particularly considering everything that has been happening of late.”
Karen also urged residents to report other crimes to the charity too. She said that the information given can sometimes be part of a wider ‘jigsaw’ puzzle for the police and that nationally, 10 arrests are made every day as a result of information people have shared with CrimeStoppers.
“We now take, on a daily basis, around 2,000 reports in our contact centre, which is based in London. Around 1,000 or so are what we call actionable, so they have got a hook for investigators to progress.
“In the Avon and Somerset Area, we give around 350 actionable pieces of information every month and we work at the moment on around 35% of those actionable pieces of information having a positive outcome.
“We like people to look at it as if it’s a jigsaw puzzle. It might be that somebody has a piece of information about a crime that is the first piece of the jigsaw, it may be that bit in the middle that they’re stuck on, or it might just be that last piece of information that they need to make an arrest and obtain a warrant.”
Karen urged that people giving the reports will remain 100% anonymous.
She said, “If people contact us on the telephone, that is a call that is received in our London contact centre, which is staffed 24 hours a day every single day by paid staff who are highly trained to take that information. They are not quizzed as if phoning the police, and it is very, very clear that they are not taking any information from the person who is making the report. We are only interested in the information. If you like, we are trying to prick people’s consciences to do the right thing and be an active bystander.”
To anonymously share information with CrimeStoppers, ring 0800 555 111 or submit through https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/give-information-online/
