These are the faces of the men and women who answer the confidential calls placed to the US-based Crime Stoppers hotline.

Sergeant Samuel Bronson and Detective Aida Fina-Milian of the Miami Dade Police Department, however, will never know your face or name.

They are volunteers for Crime Stoppers Bermuda, who answer the phones in the Miami office from concerned citizens on the Island.

Crime Stoppers is an international organisation, which started in Bermuda more than 11 years ago and allows the Island's residents to call a toll free number that is answered in Florida to report information about crimes ranging from illegal dumping to homicides.

The Miami team were visiting the Island last week to try and understand landmarks and parishes, because as Detective Fina-Milian said many times callers from Bermuda only have those as reference points.

She said: "We try to get as much information as possible with descriptions of what's going on. I am not familiar with the area and hopefully I get it right so I can forward it (to Bermuda's Crime Stoppers point person) and work the information.

"They (callers) become a little annoyed when asked to supply some information because I am not familiar with it (an area).

"For example with the parishes here we have counties in Florida so it's not the same way we work. It takes some familiarisation."

Mrs. Fina-Milian said they also try hard to get as much information from the callers as possible before hanging up the phone so may ask them to repeat details and spell names or places.

If anything this should reassure the reluctant public that they will not be identified when they call into the confidential Crime Stoppers hotline, according to Joanne MacPhee Crime Stoppers Chairman.

The people answering have no idea who you are let alone what is meant by Warwick parish. That may also lead to them asking callers to repeat themselves.

But that shouldn't be intimidating because it's not to figure out who you are but to ensure that they take down the correct information before sending it on to the Crime Stoppers coordinator here on the Island.

These men and women also receive calls from Belize, Miami Dade County, Bahamas, Cayman Island and the Turks and Caicos and said they receive about 100 from Bermuda a year.

And Mrs. MacPhee said she hoped the trip to the Island would also be a chance to thank the volunteer team and to give them a chance to voice any concerns.

She said: "We are hoping this will increase the number of tips and if they had any burning issues they could bring them to the Board. It was also a thank you for the team which is completely voluntary."

Sgt. Bronson added: "We wanted to get an idea about the Island because we are taking tips from the Island. Here landmarks are important for addresses.

"Now we are able to understand the area. It's all about maintaining the integrity of this programme. There's no way for us to know who you are for your information we will give you a control number."

Sergeant Alex MacDonald, of Crime Stoppers Bermuda, also stressed that people should be patient when they call Crime Stoppers, because there are only so many people to answer and each call takes between 15 and 20 minutes.

But helping to cut down on this in the future will be citizens' ability to text and e-mail the Miami office. He added: "We are working with the Department of Technology for this Sweeper Machine Servers. With this technology texts and e-mails go into the first serve and everything is scrambled.

"We hope to be online in September."