JanetElaine
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For the third year in a row, Dutch national police have released a 'cold case calendar' featuring 52 of the nation's unsolved crimes and mysteries - one for each week of the year.
The Dutch police defines a cold case as any case since 1988 that carries a jail sentence of over 12 years and has gone unsolved for at least three years.
The calendar is distributed among prisoners in the European country. It is one of the efforts of police to hopefully solve more so-called cold cases. Since 2017 efforts have also been stepped up on social media and tv programs. "One of the most crucial tools in solving these cases is information from the public, from witnesses", according to a police press release.
The calendar method appears to be successful - after the first release in 2017, police received 78 tips about cases on the calendar -double the amount of the previous year-, of which 34 proved useful, and 9 cold cases were reopened.
In total, police received almost five times as many tips about cold cases in 2017 as compared to 2016, before the efforts to gain information were stepped up - 800 tips versus 164.
In 2018 police received 302 tips based on the calendar alone, with 40 being crucial and 13 cases being reopened.
The oldest case featured on this year's calendar is of missing Alwin Sterk (20) of Amsterdam, who vanished in 1972.
Other featured cases are of unsolved murders, unidentified bodies, and other missing people. The calendar is available in Dutch, English, Spanish, Arabic, and Turkish.
Link to English version of the calendar:
https://www.politie.nl/binaries/con...-181029-def-coldcase-kalender-2019-eng-di.pdf
Press release about the 2019 calendar, in Dutch: Cold cases op de kaart met coldcasekalender
Article in English about the calendar in 2017: Prisoners solve cold cases
(Above article based on this The Guardian piece: Dutch prisoners given cold-case calendars in hope of solving crimes )
English article about the renewed efforts to bring cold cases under the attention of the public, from 2018: Dutch police are using AI to pick out the most solvable cold cases
The Dutch police defines a cold case as any case since 1988 that carries a jail sentence of over 12 years and has gone unsolved for at least three years.
The calendar is distributed among prisoners in the European country. It is one of the efforts of police to hopefully solve more so-called cold cases. Since 2017 efforts have also been stepped up on social media and tv programs. "One of the most crucial tools in solving these cases is information from the public, from witnesses", according to a police press release.
The calendar method appears to be successful - after the first release in 2017, police received 78 tips about cases on the calendar -double the amount of the previous year-, of which 34 proved useful, and 9 cold cases were reopened.
In total, police received almost five times as many tips about cold cases in 2017 as compared to 2016, before the efforts to gain information were stepped up - 800 tips versus 164.
In 2018 police received 302 tips based on the calendar alone, with 40 being crucial and 13 cases being reopened.
The oldest case featured on this year's calendar is of missing Alwin Sterk (20) of Amsterdam, who vanished in 1972.
Other featured cases are of unsolved murders, unidentified bodies, and other missing people. The calendar is available in Dutch, English, Spanish, Arabic, and Turkish.
Link to English version of the calendar:
https://www.politie.nl/binaries/con...-181029-def-coldcase-kalender-2019-eng-di.pdf
Press release about the 2019 calendar, in Dutch: Cold cases op de kaart met coldcasekalender
Article in English about the calendar in 2017: Prisoners solve cold cases
(Above article based on this The Guardian piece: Dutch prisoners given cold-case calendars in hope of solving crimes )
English article about the renewed efforts to bring cold cases under the attention of the public, from 2018: Dutch police are using AI to pick out the most solvable cold cases
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