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
Broadwater Farm where a gas explosion in 1968 caused progressive collapse, killing four people. Broadwater Farm was built using the same Taylor Woodrow-Anglian system of panels as Ronan Point. The domino-like system of large structural slabs speeded the building and allowed cheaper, less expert labour to be used to assemble the prefabricated panels. Even so, construction standards were ignored; mortar joints stuffed with newspaper reduced drying time and weakened the buildings. The blocks were inspected for safety in 1985 about the same time that gas was installed. Gaps, wide enough to see the flat below, were found between the external wall panels