THE UK has just launched its first most wanted' website. When checking it, the site appeared to be down' after reportedly receiving more than 21,000 hits in five minutes. Our interest in crime-related news is now out in the open, along with the most wanted'. But the whole genre of crime-related websites is quite interesting from both sides.

To satisfy your curiosity, visit the true Crimestoppers charity website online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org, and then go to its Most Wanted section - if you can break in'. When I tried, the site was offline showing this message: The request cannot be processed at this time. The amount of traffic exceeds the web site's configured capacity'. The demand is high higher than expected. We will see if it is worth the wait.

A WEBSITE with a similar name www.crimestoppers.co.uk promotes itself as your online resource for crime prevention'. It says it is run by members of the public and business people who have had enough of crime and want to offer people a portal to crime prevention sites throughout the United Kingdom. It has links to a variety of related organisations but says it is not the true Crimestoppers charity site. Always be thorough in checking that the site you are on is indeed the one you want.

For the local angle, visit www.cumbria.police.uk, www.lancashire.police.uk and www.merseyside.police.uk. These are the three sites you will want to check out when forming an opinion about the proposed merger of the three forces.(Go to News - Vote to have your say.)You'll also find links to most police websites, with the glaring exception of Cumbria's (dj vu?), at www.uk250.co.uk/police. Lancashire does have www.saferlancashire.co.uk, a community safety partnership website with lots of helpful links.

The UK police have two great online services one to answer questions and one to report lesser crimes. To report non-urgent crime online, visit www.online.police.uk. It is set up to take reports of thefts, so-called hate crimes, criminal damage or vandalism and theft from a motor vehicle. It is for first notification of the crime to police only and is not a substitute for dialling 999 or contacting your local police for situations like crimes in progress and witnessing a crime. To get your questions answered, go to www.askthe.police.uk.

The Government has put a website up to back its verbal commitment to crime reduction' at http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/. You can get statistics, access plans and find out about what kind of activities you could launch in your community. It also has mini-sites' dealing with topics like domestic violence, fraud, student victimisation and more. This site is strong on links, and weak on fancy design both positives for site users.

On a lighter note, putting the words boot camp and bootcamp into Google turned up some interesting sites, from My daughter has graduated from the Marines', and definitions of the terms from www.freedictionary.com, to a blogging boot camp at www.journalism.co.uk - itself a blog.

Of course, there is the darker side of the web when it comes to crime but we are not going to go there and neither should you.

New! On www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk: Visit News Crimestoppers to follow our in-paper updates and access links to key sites.