Crime Stoppers International: When Anonymous Reporting Can Change Everything, the Technology Behind it Has to Work
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Every day, people witness crimes they are afraid to report. Organised criminal networks, human trafficking, child exploitation, financial crime, cybercrime, these are not abstract threats. They are real, they are ongoing, and they go unreported when people fear retaliation or simply do not know where to turn.
Crime Stoppers exists to change this. By providing communities with a safe and anonymous pathway to share information, Crime Stoppers has become one of the most trusted crime-prevention networks in the world. The numbers reflect the scale of what anonymous reporting can achieve: as of 2023, the Crime Stoppers network has generated over two million actionable tips, contributing to more than 1.5 million arrests and over 1.6 million cases cleared. In the same period, intelligence from the network resulted in USD $2.5 billion in narcotics seized and USD $2.06 billion in property recovered.
Behind those outcomes is a network of organisations, capabilities, and partnerships that enable communities to speak up safely. SixPivot is proud to be one of them.
Crime Stoppers International: The Global Backbone of Anonymous Crime Reporting
Crime Stoppers International (CSI) is the international umbrella organisation that coordinates collaboration, capability development, and global initiatives across Crime Stoppers entities worldwide, with a particular focus on transnational and cross-border crime.
While local Crime Stoppers programs are familiar to most Australians, CSI plays a distinct and critical role at the apex of this network. Its mandate spans some of the most serious challenges facing law enforcement today: cyber-enabled crime, human trafficking, online exploitation, organised crime, and international intelligence collaboration.
The organisation has been shaped by Australian executive leadership, with former CEO Shane Britten (also founder of Social Protect) and current CEO Hayley van Loon both bringing an Australian perspective and ambition to a globally focused mission. CSI is governed by an international volunteer board representing member organisations from across the Crime Stoppers network worldwide.
"Crime has changed. It's digital, it crosses borders, and it moves faster than the systems built to stop it. A single anonymous tip in one country can connect to a trafficking route or a fraud network spanning ten others, but only if someone can see the whole picture. Anonymous community reporting is as vital as it's ever been, yet on its own it can't reveal those patterns. That's why we've begun building a Global Intelligence Fusion Centre: to turn what communities know into intelligence that keeps pace with how crime actually works today."
- Hayley van Loon, CEO, Crime Stoppers International
How SixPivot Became a Technology Partner to Crime Stoppers International
SixPivot became one of Crime Stoppers International's technology partners following an introduction facilitated by Microsoft, leading to an ongoing engagement that combines pro bono managed services with funded development initiatives supporting CSI's global operations.
Faith Rees, Group CEO and Founder of SixPivot, explains how the relationship began and why it resonated so immediately with the company's founding values:
"It was through an introduction from Microsoft several years ago that led to this partnership. CSI needed help that didn't neatly fit into a standard service offering and spanned a few areas of expertise, which required a high degree of trust and true flexibility in partnering to provide CSI with what they needed. Since starting SixPivot, one of our core values has been making a difference in the world, and I cannot think of a better partnership to enable this."
That flexibility has been central to how the partnership has functioned from the outset. CSI operates in a high-trust, high-consequence environment, one where operational continuity is not a preference; it is a requirement. SixPivot's ongoing support has evolved alongside the organisation's leadership and international growth, spanning multiple CEO tenures and an expanding global mandate.
"SixPivot keeps the technology behind our anonymous reporting secure and reliable, and helps us build the new tools our programs need. It sounds practical, and it is, but in our work, reliable technology is what community trust is actually built on. As we begin building our Global Intelligence Fusion Centre, having a partner who handles that well lets a small team take on a global mission."
- Hayley van Loon, CEO, Crime Stoppers International
What SixPivot Delivers for Crime Stoppers International
SixPivot provides Crime Stoppers International with pro bono managed services covering operational stability and security, alongside funded development work to extend CSI's technology capabilities across its global network.
These two streams work together. Managed services and ongoing technology support ensure CSI's systems are reliable, secure, and capable of handling sensitive, anonymous reporting on an international scale. Funded development initiatives build on this foundation, enabling new tools and platforms that help Crime Stoppers entities around the world continue delivering trusted reporting services to their communities.
This is not commodity technology delivery. CSI's environment demands that every system decision account for security, operational resilience, and the trust communities place in the reporting channel. SixPivot brings modern software engineering, AI, and cloud platform expertise, along with the judgment to apply them where the stakes are high.
"Crime Stoppers International's needs rarely fit a standard template, and SixPivot has never asked them to. At Crime Stoppers International, we talk about 'no light between the shields' — seamless, unbroken trust between everyone working to keep communities safe. We hold our technology partners to this same standard, and after years of working together, SixPivot has more than earned it. As we take on ambitious work like our Global Intelligence Fusion Centre, a partner who genuinely flexes with us is foundational."
- Hayley van Loon, CEO, Crime Stoppers International
Why Technology is Foundational to Crime Stoppers International's Mission
Anonymous crime reporting depends entirely on community trust, and community trust depends on technology that's secure, reliable, and invisible to its users.
If a reporting channel is unreliable, difficult to use, or perceived as insecure, people will not use it, and crimes will go unreported. The technology supporting Crime Stoppers International’s global operations is not a supporting actor in its mission. It is foundational to it.
CSI’s work spans advocacy and partnerships focused on cyber-enabled crime, human trafficking prevention, intelligence collaboration, and international law enforcement cooperation. Each area depends on CSI’s ability to engage credibly, operate securely, and scale its reach without compromising the anonymity at the heart of Crime Stoppers’ trust.
SixPivot specialises in exactly these environments: organisations operating at an international scale, across borders, in contexts where reliability and security are non-negotiable.
“We have affiliated programs in more than 30 countries, but CSI operates truly globally. Crime doesn’t stop at borders, so neither can we. Our reporting platform works in over 25 languages, which means community intelligence can reach us from almost anywhere in the world.”
- Hayley van Loon, CEO, Crime Stoppers International
A Partnership Built on Shared Values, Not Just Shared Work
The SixPivot–Crime Stoppers International partnership is a long-term, values-aligned relationship rooted in SixPivot's founding commitment to using technology expertise in the service of organisations making a meaningful difference in the world.
Faith Rees is direct about what the CSI relationship means to SixPivot and about the leadership driving it forward; I am in awe every day of Hayley van Loon's leadership and her enormous capacity to drive CSI forward. When we talk about strong female leaders who really take action, Hayley is a force to be reckoned with."
For SixPivot, supporting Crime Stoppers International is not an obligation; it's an expression of the company's founding purpose. Making a difference in the world is not aspirational language at SixPivot; it is the reason this partnership exists and continues to grow.
"The partnerships that last aren't built on contracts; they're built on shared purpose. Faith and the team she's built bring this in equal measure. Anyone can talk about technology for good. SixPivot does the harder thing; they sit with us in the difficult problems and build real solutions. It isn't always easy. Of course, we'd take the easy version if it existed, but it rarely does. What matters is that Faith and I are both prepared to get our hands dirty when the fight arrives.
Everyone talks about public-private partnerships, but far fewer actually show up for it. SixPivot has consistently, and for years, the not-for-profit sector depends on companies and leaders like Faith who are willing to give real effort, not just goodwill."
- Hayley van Loon, CEO, Crime Stoppers International
Supporting the Organisations Keeping Communities Safe
For SixPivot, this partnership is emblematic of something the company believes deeply in: ‘the most important work often happens quietly, behind the scenes, in support of organisations operating in places where the consequences are real, and the stakes are high.’
Crime Stoppers International exists to help communities speak up about crime safely. SixPivot exists, in part, to ensure the technology supporting this mission never gets in the way.
We are proud to be their technology partner. And we are proud of what this partnership represents: how expertise, trust, and a genuine commitment to impact are the foundations of technology work worth doing.
Learn more about Crime Stoppers International and their global mission at Crime Stoppers International.
