Geelong community praised for helping to find offenders

CRIME Stoppers Victoria and Geelong Police have praised people in the Geelong region for helping to locate wanted offenders.

The community response to the two-week public call-out, which launched on February 2, has been significant, resulting in a 70 per cent increase in intelligence reports to Crime Stoppers during the campaign period.

The new information received from the community has already yielded results, leading to four wanted offenders being located and arrested and contributing further leads in other investigations.

Crime Stoppers Victoria general manager Cathy Rhodes applauded local people for their involvement in solving crime and creating a safer community.

“The people named as part of this successful campaign were wanted by police on arrest warrants for a number of crimes committed in Geelong and surrounding areas,” she said.

“The support from the public and media has been tremendous and this campaign could not have been so successful without the community really getting behind it.

“In total there was a 70 per cent increase in intelligence received from the community to Crime Stoppers during the campaign, which is a fantastic effort.

“Community engagement across our social media sites has also been significant, with our Facebook posts reaching more than half a million people.

“Together we have made the community a safer place to work and live.”

The two-week public call-out, which started in early February, formed phase 2 of a collaborative three-month crime-fighting campaign between Crime Stoppers and Geelong Police.

Geelong Acting Superintendent Geoff Colsell said community information received as part of the campaign had been “integral” to creating a safer Geelong.

“There is no doubt that the information received to Crime Stoppers has been integral to locating and arresting these wanted offenders.

“One of the wanted offenders named handed himself in to police while the others were located by police following information received from the community. This is an excellent result.”

Phase 3 of the collaborative campaign will be held in March and will focus on unsolved crimes in the area involving CCTV footage.