“Call M.: 0800 - 7000 and report crime anonymously”

How it started:

The Dutch version of Crime Stoppers has started in September 2002 after a pilot study of three years. We looked at the USA, UK, Australian and Canadian models and made some adaptations, because our cultural and juridicial situation is different in comparison with those countries.
Besides that, there was a vast public-private co-operation in tackling crime in The Netherlands when we started to study the concept.
That has been the reason for setting up our concept in the form of a public-private foundation and under an own name: “Meld Misdaad Anoniem”, or, in English : ‘report crime anonymously’.
In short Meld Misdaad Anoniem is called “M.”
The dot behind the M stands for ‘stop’ crime.
We decided to set up one central call center for the whole of The Netherlands; our population (17 mio people) and small sized country are ideal to have just one center, one board, one office, etc, etc.
The 0800 - 7000 number is free of charge and available daily, from 10am – 10pm. Information can be given in Dutch, English, German or Arabic and from some places the number can also be called from abroad (+31 800 - 7000).

Results 2005:

In 2005, M. received more than 100.000 calls, which resulted in more than 12,000 actionable tips, resulting in at least 700 arrests and over 1000 crimes being solved.
“At least”, because we only got 40 % of all feed-back formulars back from the police and other organisations.
At the moment we’ve set up a nation wide project and a more dedicated ICT system for the management of the distributed tips to all partners to improve this performance.

Crimes
Like in all Crime Stoppers countries one can call about all crimes.
Reports were made about terrorism, murder, financial and insurance fraud, drugs, weapons, trafficking of women, car theft, arson, etc. etc.

Not a phone line of the police

M. is not a phone line of the police.
This means that M. callers will not get the police at the other end of the line.
The national call-center of M. is manned by civilians. We did this for two reasons: firstly to comply with the national disclosure acts: if a police officer writes an information down, this information is not allowed to be given to other organisations than the police anymore. As we started M. as a public private initiative, other parties like insurers, banks, energy companies, and other private parties, should be given information too.
The second reason was to lower the treshold for the callers; speaking to a fellow civilian is less threatening than to a police officer sometimes.
Certainly the call center employees were severely trained for their job and the supervisor of the call center is a police officer.

Organisation
M. is set up as a foundation. There are four parties represented in the board: the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior, the Association of Chiefs of Police (chair) and the Association of Insurers.
There also is an advisory board, consisting of the following organisations: national public prosecution, chambers of commerce, television broadcasting company and a high representative of the Dutch Aid to Victim Organisation, as well as a mayor, representing the Dutch councils.
The M-bureau : in fact the managing part of the organisation, consisting of 2 (part time) directors, 1 full time manager, 3 communication specialists and 2 secretaries.
The call center as already mentioned is an external one, hired from our national police service.
And last but not least: in each police district and with each other connected party, there are trained people to deal with the incoming tips.
All this is financied by the four parties in the board and by the parties receiving the tips.
In total the annual budget of M. is € 1,1 mio.

Intermediary

M. serves as an intermediary. M. ensures that concrete tips are send to the police or other investigation services, such as the fraud bureau of the Association of Insurers, the fraud bureau of the federation of energy companies, FIOD (Dutch Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service), Royal Netherlands Military Constabulary, Central Criminal Intelligence Division, AIVD (Dutch National Intelligence and Security Agency), NMa (Netherlands Competition Authority) or Special Investigation Units. They act upon the given information. The reports are assigned to an existing investigation or a new investigation will be opened.

Guaranteed anonymity
M. callers remain anonymous. The phone number of the caller cannot be traced and will not be stated on the phone bill. M. will deal with the call without asking names, addresses or other personal details. Besides, M. will never keep recordings of the calls. All M. does is hand over the report to the partners with whom M. have made an agreement.
Remember: M. cannot provide anyone with any information about our callers.
In two recent cases in court the defenders asked tapes and/or call center staff as witnesses for the defendence of their clients. As there were no tapes at all and the duty rosters nor the tip itself did mention the names of the staff on duty when the tip came in, this appeal failed. The cases went clear and there were severe convictions for drug handling and possession of weapons.

Reports in different languages
When one calls 0800 - 7000, one will first hear a recorded message, followed by an option menu for the following languages: Dutch, German, English, North African, Arabic and Berber (Rif). M. makes use of certified and screened interpreters for the last three of those languages. Depending on the menu option one chooses, an interpreter will be phoned to assist during the conversation. We strive to match the sex of our callers and interpreters, so female interpreters for female callers and male interpreters for male callers. Calling with the help of an interpreter is also anonymous, and therefore safe. Our call operators and interpreters have the same rule that applies to them; they cannot be called as a witness in criminal proceedings.

Crimestoppers
As a member of Crimestoppers International, M. is based on the Crimestoppers concept that has been successfully introduced in various countries, such as the UK and the US.