crime stoppers (NSW)

Article

18 Feb

NSW Crime Stoppers Ltd is an incorporated public company that operates in partnership with the police and the private sector (1). Crime Stoppers operates a tip line for people to report on other members of their community with a focus on drug law enforcement. They also run public education campaigns on topics including child protection, dangerous driving and graffiti.

It is part of the umbrella organisation Crime Stoppers Australia, which was in turn affiliated with Crime Stoppers International until 2024 (2).

Although Crime Stoppers is largely run by police officers, it is a private entity and thus not subject to the same freedom of information laws or parliamentary oversight as the police. The funding and operation of Crime Stoppers is opaque with no financial information available on the NSW or national websites. Financial reports can be found at the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission here.

history

The first Crime Stoppers was founded in Albuquerque, USA in 1976 and the idea spread throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. There are now Crime Stoppers organisations in 30 countries affiliated to Crime Stoppers International (3).

Crime Stoppers Australia was founded in 1987 (4), with Crime Stoppers NSW following in 1989 (5).

In March 2024, South Australia Police suspended their partnership with Crime Stoppers due to Crime Stoppers International’s partnership with Aylo and Ethical Capital Partners, owners of pornography websites including PornHub. In December 2023 Aylo had been fined $1.84 million USD for profiting from sex trafficking (6).

In April, Crime Stoppers Australia ended their partnership with Crime Stoppers International (7). South Australia Police then resumed their relationship with Crime Stoppers SA (8). Crime Stoppers NSW continue to link to Crime Stoppers International on their website.

activities

Crime Stoppers’ main enterprise is a 24/7 hotline for reporting suspected criminal activity. Informants can also report criminal activity through an online form. Nationally, Crime Stoppers claim to have received 163,967 calls and 213,557 online reports leading to 3986 arrests in 2023 (9).

Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward of up to $1000 dollars for information that leads to an arrest, with larger payments at the discretion of the police (10). Cash rewards can incentivise false reporting.

Crime Stoppers NSW runs public awareness campaigns on the following topics:

- Child protection

- Regional crime

- Dob in a dealer

- Drink, drug, distracted, and dangerous driving

- “Ice” drug labs

- Graffiti

- Prohibited plants

- Bike theft

- Domestic and family violence

- Bushfires

- Fraud and identity theft

Beginning in 2016 the Federal government funded the Dob in a Dealer campaign which was run by Crime Stoppers and state police forces. The campaign encouraged people to monitor their neighbours for suspicious activity including “lights on at all hours, lots of different cars and people arriving and leaving at odd hours” (11). The campaign involved social and traditional media and successive launches in individual Local Area Commands. Police Officers staffed booths at train stations, festivals and shopping centres to hand out information regarding the campaign.

The campaign was run in two main surges in 2016 and 2018-19. The campaign page for 2019 states “Results from Crime Stoppers’ recent Dob in a Dealer campaign are expected to disrupt the nation’s illegal drugs market for some time” (12). The National Drug Strategy Household Survey measures the percentage of Australians who have recently used illicit drugs (13):

2016: 15.6%

2019: 16.4%

2022-23: 17.9%

The increasing rate of illicit drug use calls into question the effectiveness of Dob in a Dealer and other drug policing measures.

governance

The CEO of NSW Crime Stoppers Ltd is Peter Price. Peter Price grew up in apartheid South Africa where he worked in military intelligence before embarking on a career in advertising and moving to Australia (14). He is managing director at First Light, an advertising agency partnering with Crime Stoppers.

Price is also CEO and President of Poliveil (15), a manufacturer of spit hoods similar to the ones used on children at Don Dale and Adelaide Youth Training Centre (16). Poliveil markets spit hoods as “personal protective equipment” rather than torture devices. They claim that spit hoods “may assist in the prevention of potential HIV transfer” despite there being no recorded cases of HIV transmission through spitting (17).

corporate sponsorship

Crime Stoppers offers benefits to their corporate partners including “Demonstrated leadership in corporate social responsibility” and “Increased sales and market share” (18).

NSW corporate partners include Eftsure, Australia Post, Property Vault, Wynstan, MinterEllison, Nextdoor, PKF and Peter Price’s company First Light (19). Crime Stoppers uses its social media accounts to run ads for its sponsors.