Reporting crimes is important to you as a member of the public and to the police. If the police have the details of your crime they can look for patterns with other crimes and allocate the resources necessary to stop new crimes happening. You will need to report the crime in order to get a crime number so you can claim against your insurance. The police will also keep you up to date on the progress of the investigation into your incident.

Calling 999
If you've just been mugged, attacked or if you've just seen a crime being committed, then you should ring 999 as soon as possible. Once you've been put through, a police officer will ask you to describe what has happened and where you are. They may also ask you if any of the other emergency services, like the ambulance service, need to know about the situation. If it is an emergency and you need urgent attention, a police officer will arrive. If you've been a victim then they'll be able to calm you down and help you with anything you may need. The police are often the first people to help you if you're a victim of crime. They're use to helping people who are understandably scared and upset by the experience. If the crime has just happened, they'll need to take a statement from you which will record exactly what happened in detail and will help the police catch the offender. They may also want to collect some evidence to help with their investigation. This may include fingerprints, photographs or some of your clothing. The police understand that this may be a distressing experience so they'll be as sensitive as possible.

Giving a statement
Whether you reported an emergency or non-emergency, you will probably have to give a statement to the police. You'll have to tell an officer what happened to you or what you saw. As you tell them, they may ask you questions or ask you to repeat yourself to make sure the statement is as accurate and as detailed as possible. When you've finished giving a statement, the police will then usually read it back to you to make sure that their written account matches yours. If you agree, you'll sign the statement and get a crime reference number. You'll need to keep this if you want to contact the police about the same incident in the future. If you're reporting a theft, you'll also need to use this reference number if you're making an insurance claim.

Non-emergency - 0845 6060 606
If you want to let the police know about a minor crime like a stolen mobile phone, you should go to your nearest police station to report it or call your local police authority. You can find their number in the telephone directory. By not using 999 for minor incidents, you're making sure that people in genuine emergency situations will be able to contact the police quickly and more efficiently. You can also report them to your local authority online. Non-emergency incidents include reporting vandalism, graffiti, abandoned cars and other examples of anti-social behaviour.

TEXT a Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT)
There is one text number for the North West Leeds Division. This number is 0795 0080 240. However, if you want to contact a particular Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) we ask that you start your text with a 'smart word' that will send the text to the correct NPT. Don't worry if you don't know which area you live in as your text will always get picked up. So, for the correct 'smart word' see the table below:
Please note that there is a standard network rate charge for each text.