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Will include more forces soon
If you've been the victim of a crime, this is the website for you. It's called TrackMyCrime (via the Telegraph), and it lets you follow the police investigation as it unfolds.
It keeps you up to date on what the police are doing, whether they're looking for offenders or bringing charges against them. You can also contact the case officers directly by sending them secure messages. The aim is to make sure victims aren't kept in the dark, while making police more accountable.
To use the service you'll have to select your local force, enter your surname, date of birth, crime reference and password. That way it should stop curtain twitchers watching investigations for kicks.
At the moment it only applies to five police forces: Avon and Somerset, Kent, South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire (these last two on their own websites). But now it has the Ministry of Justice behind it, it will roll out across England and Wales.
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"This government is committed to doing the best it possibly can for crime victims and has committed more money than ever before to doing so," said Mike Penning, the victims' minister.
"TrackMyCrime builds on this by giving victims more control over their case than ever before and allows them to find out information in a way and at a time that suits them.
"This is a common sense approach and I look forward to seeing police forces across the country adopting it."
It will also provide information on victim support.
