Police will phone for crime help

The scheme will allow up-to-date details to be sent

Police officers in south and west Devon are to tap into a new way of detecting and reducing crime.

Officers will send information appeals for recent and ongoing crimes to members of the public by text messages in the Stopcrime scheme.

People who sign up to it will receive free-of-charge alerts on their mobile phones and email addresses about incident in the area.

They can then send vital information in return as part of the £7,000 scheme.

Shop promotion

Returned messages from the public will be received on a central computer at Paignton police station which will alert officers of any new intelligence or information that can be acted upon if required.

From Monday, neighbourhood beat managers will be visiting shops and businesses asking them to display posters promoting Stopcrime to customers.

People can then pick up a leaflet, which contains a PIN number that will enable them to subscribe to the scheme.

Stopcrime was set up with the help of a local businessman and Superintendent Andy Clarke and was part-funded by a £7,000 grant from the Safer Communities organisation in Torquay.

Supt Clarke, who is in charge of the scheme, said: "The scheme has been set up to compliment the existing Ringmaster community messaging, which provides a similar service to other parts of the community through land-line telephones.

"Stopcrime has the potential to help us detect all sorts of crime as we are able to send up-to-date details to groups in the community that we haven't previously reached - in particular young people."