080-1200 "Joining forces against crime"

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ASSIST THE POLICE
IN THE INVESTIGATION AND DETECTION OF CRIMINAL OFFENCES,
IF YOU KNOW THE WHEREABOUTS OF
AN OFFENDER OR OBJECTS
THAT MAY SERVE AS EVIDENCE OF A CRIMINAL OFFENCE,
AND IF YOU WISH TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS

CALL THE ANONYMOUS POLICE TIP NUMBER 080-1200

The Operation and Communication Centre within Police Specialities Directorate also receives anonymous calls from citizens. Experience in police work has shown that victims and persons suffering damage do not report all criminal and violent incidents and witnesses are often not prepared to give an account of the incident to the Police, either at the scene of the incident, before a court or a misdemeanours judge. The most frequent reason for this so-called "dark field of crime" is fear of revenge by the perpetrator or his/her relatives and fear of lawyers or long court proceedings. Despite the fact that people, particularly in urban environments, are becoming increasingly reserved to events in their surroundings, this does not necessarily mean that they are not willing to report specific information on the facts and circumstances of a criminal offence or information on suspects, on the condition that they are not personally involved in other people's problems.

So as to increase police cooperation with citizens, and thus also the effectiveness of such cooperation, the Operation and Communication Centre introduced a toll-free anonymous telephone number 080-1200 in April 1997 bearing the slogan "Joining forces against crime, we do not require your personal data and you will remain anonymous". The number is available to all those who believe they can provide the police with useful information but wish to remain anonymous. The anonymous tip number is open 24 hours a day. Calls are received by the Assistant Shift Manager, who then makes an assessment as to whether they are sufficiently important for police intervention, records them and notifies the competent criminal service of the contents.