Crime hotline celebrates 10 years with growing number of calls

The number of people calling crime hotline Meld Misdaad with tips about criminal activity has reached 14,000 a year in its ten years of operation, up from 5,000 a year in 2002 when it was set up.


In total over the ten years there have been 117,500 tips, 13,000 of which led to arrests and 9,000 to cases being solved, the anonymous hotline said on Tuesday.
Many of the cases concern serious crimes such as murder and child abuse. Half of them are about drugs.
For instance, a tip in 2003 led police to a warehouse in Zwanenburg where two Colombians were found with €7m in cash, earned through drug dealing. In 2004, a shooting in Elst was solved following a tip.
‘We are contributing to the safety of this country,’ said hotline director Guus Wesselink. ‘In these kind of cases tipsters would rather remain anonymous.’
When asked earlier this year why so many more people are using the hotline, Wesselink told the Telegraaf: ‘People seem to feel they will not stand for criminal behaviour anymore.’
The tips are passed on to the various police forces around the country.

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