Recipero News & Comment

As part of the launch of Mayor Boris Johnson’s YOU Matter (Youth Organisations in Uniform) programme, the Mayor has become a member of the Immobilise National Property Register with the aid of the Merton Volunteer Police Cadets.

Volunteer Police Cadets demonstrated Merton Police’s latest crime fighting kit, a laptop and scanner provided by the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit (NMPCU), which uploads mobile phone IMEI numbers to the secure crime prevention web site at immobilise.com.

I would say to any young person, come on and give it a go!

Using the Mayor’s own phone, the Cadets explained how police use the unique IMEI number to identify stolen mobile phones and arrest offenders, whilst registering his handset on the free property protection database.

In plans outlined by the Mayor today, thousands of youngsters will have the opportunity to join uniformed groups like the Volunteer Police Cadets, Guides, Scouts and Armed Forces Cadets. The £1.3 million programme, being run by the Safer London Foundation, will help young people develop vital skills and instil discipline and responsibility in young people, particularly those who are or at risk of being excluded from education, training or employment.

The initiative is part of Team London, the Mayor’s strategy to harness volunteers to deliver key projects to improve the quality of life and opportunities of Londoners.

Speaking at the Merton Sea Cadets Centre for the launch, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson said:

Uniformed groups are a fantastic way for youngsters to get involved in a myriad of activities, which will help equip them with the skills they need to succeed in life. It’s a modern tragedy that so many of our young people are struggling to get a foothold in the jobs market and are drifting into crime. By instilling self reliance, discipline and a sense of competition, young people can aspire to a better future.

For more information and to read the source article please visit: The MET Police Website

The BBC has reported that Police in Oxford are urging residents to register their bikes so they can be traced if they are stolen.

According to the BBC between June and August, 837 bikes were taken in the city – a rise of 141 compared to the same period in 2010.

Sgt Matt Sulley from Oxford police station said bike theft was a huge problem and returning cycles to their owners was the biggest issue.

He said if cycles are registered at immobilise.com police can easily identify the original owners.

In Oxford, Thames Valley Police are currently holding hundreds of bikes.

Sgt Sulley said the large number of cycles in Oxford made thefts a particular problem.

He said that also the large portion of old-style houses in the city meant it was difficult for people to access gardens and sheds to properly secure their bikes.

He added:

There are also criminals making a business out of it. Lots of bikes are being stolen and then stripped for parts which makes them very difficult to trace.

We have also seen a number of very expensive bikes, worth thousands of pounds, locked up with cheap locks.

Between 5 and 25 September 2011 neighbourhood policing teams will be at key locations in Oxford advising people about ways to protect their property.

To read the source BBC story please visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-14760978

To visit Thames Valley Police go to: http://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/

Police in south Manchester are urging residents to register their items on immobilise.

The police seize hundreds of items each year and many of them cannot be returned, as police do not know where they have come from.

Immobilise.com is a free database whereby residents can register valuable items and record information such as serial numbers and distinguishing marks. All police forces have access to the site and when an item is seized or handed in, officers can check the database and find out who it belongs to.

Inspector Paul Kinrade from the South Manchester Division of Greater Manchester Police said:

Our property store is crammed full of bikes, garden tools, computers, jewellery and clothing but unfortunately a lot of this is never returned to its owners as we are not able to identify where it has come from.

Obviously we hope that residents never have to go through the experience of getting broken into but registering your valuables on immobilise only takes a couple of minutes and it could spell the difference between getting your stolen items back or never seeing them again.

To avoid the chances of being broken into, please remember to shut and lock all of your windows and doors. It sounds really obvious but unfortunately a third of burglaries happen because homes are left insecure.

You can also help to deter burglars by leaving lights on and keeping valuables out of view.

To read the source article please go to: www.gmp.police.uk

South Wales Police have warned that more than 50 per cent of recent student burglaries in Cardiff have been at insecure properties.

Local officers are now offering to register student valuables on free online property database www. immobilise .com as part of the on-going Lock It, Hide It, Keep It Campaign.

The registering initiative was launched this month by student liaison officer PC Tim Davies who visited Cardiff University Students Union on Tuesday, March 1 with a crime prevention and information stand.

Pc Davies said:

The latest Home Office figures show that overall burglary in Cardiff is down 3.1 per cent but Roath and Cathays, both densely populated by students in shared properties, tend to have higher rates of burglary than other areas of the city.

Unfortunately student homes provide rich pickings for criminals who know that most students will have valuables such as laptops, games consoles and IPods that can be easily carried and sold on.

Since Christmas there have been 40 burglaries at student properties in Cardiff and 21 have at insecure properties.

This means doors and windows have been left open which is perfect for burglars as they don’t need to smash glass, risk making a noise and being disturbed, and possibly leave their DNA.

The good news is that this is something students can easily address.
Students are urged to register items such as laptops, IPods and bikes on www. immobilise .com as this means the real owners can be contacted if found.

Stolen items are usually sold or passed on in the Cardiff area.

We find hundreds of bikes every year but they have to be auctioned because we never know who they belong to,” said Pc Davies.

If owners had registered them on Immobilise then they could be easily returned.

I will be in the students union on the first Tuesday of every month with my laptop and would encourage all students to call into see me for this free service and extra crime prevention advice.

To read the source article please go to: http://www.south-wales.police.uk/

South Yorkshire Police are advising people: ‘If you love it, log it’.

In a countywide crackdown on theft and burglary, police are urging people to log their expensive Christmas presents and any other precious belongings on immobilise.com – the world’s largest FREE register of ownership details.

In a time when police resources are getting ever more stretched, the police are looking to focus their efforts on crime prevention, with this campaign aimed at preventing thefts happening in the first place – a more efficient way of protecting the public.

And in addition to acting as a major deterrent to criminals, the big difference with Immobilise is that as well as getting your stuff back if it’s lost or stolen, the system helps to catch the thieves as well!

The database is linked directly to police systems, so when officers recover any property, for whatever reason, they can check it against items logged on Immobilise. For example, if someone arrested on suspicion of drunk and disorderly has your stolen mobile phone in their pocket, police will also be able to link the theft to them as well – but only if it’s registered!

Any item can be registered on immobilise. The easiest items to log are electricals, or anything that has a serial number, but you can even log jewellery or ornamental items using the photo upload and description functions. You can register as many items as you like, and then if they are lost or stolen you simply log back on to register them as such. The police can check any property they recover, whether that’s when a person is brought into custody for any reason, property recovered from criminals in raids, or even during one of their now routine checks on second-hand dealers. And if they find anything that is listed as stolen, not only will you get your belongings back, but the thieves can be brought to justice.

Chief Superintendent Bill Hotchkiss said:

Part of policing involves stopping crime happening in the first place. The public can play a huge part in this by protecting their property with Immobilise, making items easier to identify and less attractive to thieves.

We want to send a clear message to those potential thieves that anything logged on Immobilise is too hot to handle. As a member of the South Yorkshire public, by registering your property, and marking it as such, you are much less likely to become a victim of crime.

To support the campaign, police are distributing packs to the public to make the process even easier. These include a selection of stickers to mark all your items as logged, so as to deter criminals, and an information leaflet to explain the process. The packs are available from your local police stations in South Yorkshire or from South Yorkshire branches of Curries, Dixons and PC World. In addition, safer neighbourhood team officers will be out and about in public places offering packs and advice to members of the public.

Visit www.immobilise.com to get started.

More details can be found at www.southyorks.police.uk

Avon & Somerset Police have launched an unusual crime awareness & immobilise registration campaign for Christmas. Reported by the Bristol Evening Post, shoppers can learn how to stay safe this Christmas with the help of a mocked up crime scene.

Avon and Somerset Police have transformed an empty shop unit in The Mall Bristol, Broadmead, into a rather unusual information centre.

Experts from Bike UK, the Safer Bristol Partnership and the police will be on hand to advise members of the public on all safety issues, from bike locks and seasonal burglary to late night transport and drink and drug awareness.

One of two large window displays will contain a crime scene for members of the public to investigate. The other will be have a bike security theme. Police will be urging shoppers to register presents like laptops and bikes on the national property database, Immobilise.

The database is used by police to trace the owners of suspected stolen property.

If the items are ever stolen the account holder logs on and marks them as stolen. They will then be flagged up on the national database as stolen when checked by retailers or police forces.

There will also be the chance to win a Saracen mountain bike, free T-Shirt printing with the police’s Streetwise team after school on December 9 and 16, and balloons to fingerprint and take home.

PCSO Warren Vincent-Rodgers from the Broadmead and Cabot Circus police team came up with the idea for the shop.

He said:

We tested the shop in The Mall last year with great success, speaking to more than 1,000 Bristol residents about all sorts of security and safety issues.

You can’t really have a more striking window display than a crime scene, and with so many TV programmes getting children and adults interested in this area of work, it’s a fantastic opportunity to see at first hand the techniques CSIs use to find clues and help solve cases.

Everyone is invited to note down their theory of what happened and will be entered into a prize draw.

It should make a welcome distraction from Christmas shopping.

The shop will open Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm, on Thursdays until 7pm, and on Saturdays until 3pm. For more on immobilise go to www.immobilise.com.

To read the source article please go to: www.thisisbristol.co.uk

With Christmas fast approaching Tayside Police is urging those who receive mobile phones and any other valuable electrical items to register them at www.immobilise.com

Mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 and MP4 players, and sat nav systems are the most commonly stolen items in Tayside. Unless they are registered, they are also least likely to be returned to their owners if found.

The ‘immobilise’ database is an on-line property search, used by the police service to search for any identifiable item of property. Once a phone or other piece of electrical equipment is registered, officers can use it to look up its IMEI number or unique registration number, view the registered owner’s details, find out if it has been reported stolen to the police anywhere in the UK, and in the case of a mobile phone, which network it is on. All this means that you improve your chances of getting your phone back if it is lost or stolen.

Divisional Crime Prevention Officer Colin Brough said,

These days mobile phones are used for more than just making phone calls. Many people have their whole lives on them – family pictures, important emails, personal and business contact details. We realise that if your phone is lost or stolen it can have a major impact on your life.

We want as many people as possible to get their phones and other property registered on the database this Christmas. It’s really simple, takes only a couple of minutes and better still it’s absolutely free. It means that if a mobile phone, laptop, sat nav or whatever is found, or if we stop someone with any of these items that we believe do not to belong to them, we can quickly check it on the database, and return it to the rightful owner.

We hope that by encouraging more and more people to register their property, the message that it’s just not worth it will get back to those who are thinking about stealing a phone, laptop, sat nav or MP3 player.

To view the source article please go to: www.tayside.police.uk

In the last few months there has been a major improvement in the way recyclers ensure they are not handling goods that are deemed not to be in the hands of the rightful owner. They do this by consulting the CheckMEND database as part of their checking process and if they discover certain facts about the phone they have a legal requirement to act in a predefined manner which you should be aware of.

What are these facts?

If any of the following records exist for the item you are sending to a recycler:

• A block by the UK networks on the Shared Equipment Identity Register (SEIR) also known as the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR)
• A loss or theft report on the Police Stolen Equipment National Database (SEND)
• A fulfilled insurance claim on the Identifiable Property Insurance Database (IPCD)

Then the recycler has an obligation under their Code of Practice to do certain things:

• They must tell you there is a problem and give you the details on how to contact CheckMEND so we can tell you which records are present and how you may go about getting them updated to allow the sale to proceed.
• They must tell CheckMEND about the failure to pass the testing so that CheckMEND may inform the Police, Insurer or Network that originated the record.
• They must hold the phone for 28 days to allow you to get the records updated or the record originator to claim the item or contact you.
• If at the end of the 28 days the records have not been updated or the phone claimed as above, the recycler is deemed to be the legal owner of the handset and is required to dispose of the item responsibly.
• The recycler CANNOT in these circumstances return the item to you or pay you for it. To do either would risk offences under The Theft Act or Proceeds Of Crime Act.

How can you protect yourself?

• If you are buying a used item, always ask the seller for a CheckMEND certificate or run a check yourself before buying.
• Always run a check on CheckMEND before you send an item to a recycler or otherwise try to sell it on.
• If you get a red result on any of the checks shown on the certificate DO NOT send the phone to a recycler until you have got the records updated and the check shows the phone as green, at which point you can send in the item.
• Sometimes, unscrupulous sellers will supply an item and only weeks or months later report it as lost/stolen or claim on their insurance. This is rare but in this case, your item could fall foul of the above rules after you had a green CheckMEND check and sent it to a recycler. If you are refused payment for your item in this manner as a result of a block, theft report or insurance claim CheckMEND will refund to you the cost of the check. (Not the cost of the item).

If you would like more information on the Recyclers’ code of practice please visit their web sitehttp://www.stoprecycledstolenphones.com

To visit CheckMEND please go to: www.checkmend.com

To read the source article please go to: www.checkmend.com/uk/recycle

BBC news yesterday reported that the West Midlands Police in Dudley have just unveiled a new tool in their drive to reduce crime. The device is a four wheeled pedal powered “Digi-bike”, providing a multimedia message to passersby, broadcasting Bluetooth and video and audio messages from its screens and speakers.

One of the key crime prevention messages that the digi-bike is promoting is the registration of your valued property on the Immobilise National Property Register (www.immobilise.com).

To view the BBC video go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10947119

To read the expanded BBC news story go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-black-country-10944247

As festival-goers gear up for this year’s Glastonbury Festival police in Avon and Somerset are offering some final tips and advice for a safe and crime free event.

Every year Avon and Somerset Police work closely with the festival organisers to ensure the event remains largely crime-free and a safe environment for all festival-goers.

Crime at the festival is generally low and the crime that does occur can be easily prevented. Police advise festival-goers to leave valuables at home and only take essential items to the festival with them.

If you do have to take valuable items with you make use of the free property lock-ups throughout the site and don’t leave anything valuable unattended in your tents. Register any valuable items on the Immobilise database before you leave for home so that if anything is lost or stolen police have a better chance of reuniting you with your items if they are recovered.

While out watching your favourite bands make sure you have your phone and wallet secured tightly away. Experience shows that it’s in big crowds and ‘mosh pits’ close to stages that the thieves are more likely to target you.

Personal safety and illegal substances:  No matter what myths you may have heard about police having a policy at Glastonbury of allowing people to smoke cannabis or take small amounts of other drugs, it is not true. Police have a zero tolerance policy to illegal substances and will be relentless in combating drug-related crime.

The law at Glastonbury is exactly the same as any other city, town or street in the rest of the United Kingdom when it comes to possession and use of an illegal substance. If you are found to be in possession of drugs at the festival you face arrest and prosecution as well as eviction from the site.

Contacting police at the Festival: Finally, if at the festival you do need to contact officers, the best thing to do is visit the 24-hour police station on site at the Festival. This is situated to the north of the festival site along with the other emergency services.

If you need to contact police in an emergency however always call 999.

Officers will be patrolling the site throughout the festival offering a reassuring and highly visible presence and are more than happy to chat to festival goers about their concerns. Officers will be loaded with crime prevention freebies to give away to festival-goers throughout the event.

To receive updates from the police during the festival on anything from traffic problems to beat surgeries then register for text alerts by texting ‘GLASTO’ to 81003. Everyone who registers for alerts will be entered into a prize draw to win a Sony PSP (full terms and conditions available on the police’s Glastonbury microsite – www.glastonburypolice.org).

To register on the Immobilise Database follow these instructions:
Key *#06# on your phone’s keypad to view your IMEI number.

Register by text: Then text REG followed by your IMEI number to 83010 – and Immobilise will reply with your account details and instructions. You will be charged a one-off 25p charge for the return text message.

Alternatively; register online: Visit www.immobilise.com and register for free.

To read the source article in full please go to: http://www.glastonburypolice.org/news/Details.aspx?nsid=20720#nsu-1