Crimestoppers UK and learnt about the Crimestoppers scheme, he saw it as a good opportunity to get the community involved in crime-fighting. Other areas around the UK also learned of Crimestoppers and took it up around this time but there was no national, co-ordinated approach. In 1985, PC Keith Blakelock was murdered during the riots at the Broadwater Farm Estate in London and the police appealed for information, stating that people knew who had been responsible but were frightened of coming forward. Michael Ashcroft (now Lord Ashcroft, KCMG and Chairman of the Trustees of Crimestoppers), a businessman, offered to provide the police
1985: The Year of the Spy 1985: The Year of the Spy The American media referred to 1985 as the Year of the Spy because law enforcement arrested many foreign spies operating on American soil. However, the preceding year, 1984, actually had more arrests for espionage in the United States. The eight major agents who became infamous in 1985 for espionage against the United States were John Anthony Walker, Richard Kelly Smyth, Sharon W. Scranage, Larry Wu-Tai Chin, Jonathan Jay Pollard, Ronald William Pelton, Randy Miles Jeffries, and Edward Lee Howard. The majority of these operatives were spying for Communist nations. Their arrests in 1985 heightened