Protecting Public Safety | Announcing Our Partnership With Crimestoppers

At imabi, our focus is on education, prevention and empowerment – and a core part of empowerment centres on our anonymous reporting function.

People want to be reassured that, whatever they report – be that crimes or inappropriate, antisocial behaviours – is anonymous.

And what better way to emphasise this than by partnering with Crimestoppers, a leading independent charity that gives people the power to speak up and stop crime, 100% anonymously.

Through our partnership, we’re looking to both improve access to and raise awareness of Crimestoppers’ vital services.

Together, we hope this move will enable more people across the UK to speak up about crime.

Public Safety: About Crimestoppers

Crimestoppers is an independent charity designed to facilitate the reporting of criminal activity in an anonymous manner, 24/7, 365 days a year.

After receiving a call or a completed anonymous online form, the charity creates a report that brings together all the information given, making sure it doesn't contain anything that could jeopardise the safety or identify the person making the report.

It’s then sent to the relevant authority with the legal responsibility to investigate and take action. This could be a local police force or an agency such as the UK Border Agency or HM Revenue & Customs.

The programme functions independently of the emergency telephone system and conventional police contact methods, and allows individuals to offer information that aid authorities in solving crimes, without becoming directly involved in the investigative procedures.

With Crimestoppers’ reports continuing to grow in number, we’ve partnered with the organisation to help provide a cohesive and comprehensive system for both imabi and Crimestoppers users.

Our Reporting App

Our imabi platform offers real-time actionable support to our users, as well as empowering them to report crimes and access essential supportive materials and services — all within one place.

Thanks to this new seamless integration with Crimestoppers, when our users know about crime but don’t want to speak directly to law enforcement, they can quickly access the Crimestoppers’ website, and have the option to fill in their anonymous online form. 

Public Safety When Using Crimestoppers and imabi

imabi users will be guaranteed the same level of anonymity as everyone who contacts Crimestoppers, and you can click on a ‘quick exit’ icon should you need to leave the website quickly.

You’ll also have access to the Crimestoppers’ reporting page via a link in all of our ecosystem’s apps – including imabi Community, imabi Inspire, imabi Pro and Railway Guardian.

This avoids them having to switch to a separate browser — a move that aligns with Crimestoppers’ emphasis on anonymity, as it leaves no record in the browser history.

Why Is This Move Good For Our imabi Users?

Commenting on the new partnership, Mark Balaam, our CEO and Founder here at imabi, said: “When we first designed the imabi platform, we were always motivated by the concept that ‘Everyone has the right to feel safe’. 

“Being able to integrate Crimestoppers anonymously into our platform has allowed us to take a big step towards this ambition. This function can be effective in a range of differing circumstances, but the overarching key ingredient here is anonymity.

“Accessing the Crimestoppers online reporting platform through imabi eliminates the need for external browsers and allows users to swiftly exit, which could empower someone to report a crime they may not have done otherwise.” 

Are People Using Crimestoppers?

From April 2022 to March 2023, almost 600,000 people passed on information to Crimestoppers — an average of 1,600 reports submitted per day. 

The charity announced in its annual report that more than 1,300 people were arrested and charged, with a further 26,000 positive outcomes stemming from the anonymous reports.

Ruth McNee, Head of Business Growth and Fundraising at the charity Crimestoppers, speaking of our partnership, said: “We’re delighted to be working in partnership with imabi, as we both share the aim of keeping people and communities safe. 

“By integrating fast access to our charity’s unique crime reporting service across imabi’s respected platform, we hope that more people than ever will speak up with information that helps to stop crime.”

Public Safety: Our Other Partnerships

This new partnership with Crimestoppers is our second significant milestone this month. 

We’ve also supported the British Transport Police (BTP) in its receipt of the ‘Making Spaces Safer’ award by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing, with imabi providing the technology behind the BTP’s “Speak Up, Interrupt” campaign and Railway Guardian app. 

The campaign encourages passengers, especially men, to be active bystanders and report incidents of sexual harassment via the app, which also includes the ability to report crimes, send a text to 61016 (See it, Say it, Sorted), and access safeguarding news, guides, support and geo location safety tools.

Available to over 5 million daily rail users since its national launch in July 2022, the Railway Guardian app attracts tens of thousands of new users each month, and recent innovations have led to us committing to supporting the British Transport Police with a number of new campaigns and initiatives over the next few years.  

Mark said: “We’ve already witnessed first-hand the impact reporting through the app can have in keeping the public safe. This new partnership with the charity Crimestoppers is a real meeting of minds, and we look forward to seeing the impact it has within our platform.”

British Transport Police

Sarah White, Detective Superintendent at the British Transport Police, said: “Railway Guardian is the first police safety app, serving as a one stop shop for safer travel. 

“What imabi has helped us do, as the technology behind the Railway Guardian app, is empower people to take action and report incidents to BTP. 

“Integrating other leading services, like Crimestoppers, within the platform is a great opportunity to further contribute towards a safer society for all, and we look forward to offering our users access to this invaluable service.”

To find out more about our imabi platform, please contact a member of our team. 

Alternatively, why not read our previous blog to discover how to call out bad behaviour?