A NEW campaign to encourage people to inform on criminals has been launched across North Yorkshire.

Operation Ratcatcher is a joint initiative between North Yorkshire Police and Crimestoppers and is designed to get people to contact the confidential Crimestoppers telephone line with information on offences and offenders.

The operation has been launched to coincide with the move into British wintertime, as police say there are more opportunities for criminals to strike when houses are empty during the long, dark evenings. The operation will run until March 31.

Hambleton District Commander of North Yorkshire Police, Chief Inspector Mark Davies said: "The analogy of the ratcatcher is that if you had rats running about your home, you would call pest control, so if you have criminals in your area, you should call Crimestoppers. Ratcatcher is a way of heightening peoples' awareness of a number of issues and to give local people the opportunity to tell us about people committing crime in the area.

"Local information means local action so that if we are told about things like burglaries and violent crime then we can act."

People are also being warned to tighten up their home security by using a timer on their lights if they are out during the dark evenings, locking front and back doors and keeping car and door keys out of sight.

"These sorts of campaigns do work," said Chief Insp Davies. "We appealed for information about quite a nasty aggravated burglary in the Easingwold area and it was through information that we made an arrest."

Operation Ratcatcher is being run alongside Operation Delivery, which was launched at the start of September to crackdown on crime by shortening the time it takes to bring offenders to justice.

In the first month of Operation Delivery there were 800 arrests and officers are hoping that Operation Ratcatcher will have a similar effect.

Chief Insp Davies said: "Operation Delivery is being proactive and going out and arresting people. Ratcatcher is supporting that and gives the public the chance to become part of the operation."

People calling the Crimestoppers number do not have to give their names and could qualify for a cash reward.