Ask which period the page describes
Check the event date, the programme's original publication date and the date of any written companion. They can be years apart. On the HMP Durham companion, the source note identifies a film published on 31 August 2021 and explicitly treats operational details as historical framing. Finding that page today does not make its account of a prison population or routine current.
For a practical question, start a new search at the responsible institution's current official page. Keep historical claims attached to their period rather than quietly overwriting them with present-day assumptions. The archive remains useful for understanding what a programme covered, while current visiting arrangements or contact details require a current operational source.
Read an appeal as a dated request for information
Our Eamonn Farren report is based on a Northamptonshire Police appeal published on 28 September 2026. The release connects a request to locate him with an alleged restraining-order breach and gives incident reference 26000352170. That is the scope of the dated source. It is not a conviction and does not establish a later court outcome.
Before acting on or sharing an appeal, open the original force's page and look for an update, a withdrawal, a located notice or a later statement about the same incident. Check names, reference numbers and dates together. A page remaining accessible is not a guarantee that every circumstance is unchanged. This guide is not a continuing certification that any named appeal remains active.
Handle a missing source as an unresolved gap
An unavailable link can have several explanations. It does not by itself prove that a person was found, that an allegation was false or that a case was discontinued. Search the relevant force's own news and appeal pages for a replacement or explicit update. If no current official account can be found, keep the last verified date visible and describe the present status as unconfirmed.
Avoid carrying an old appeal into a fresh social post as if it had just been issued. Preserve its date and link when discussing its historical publication. If your purpose is to help with a current investigation, rely on the force's current instructions rather than asking readers to resolve the gap through rumours, recognition guesses or public accusations.
Send information to the organisation that can act on it
Use the reporting route in the force's current instructions and include the case reference. Police.uk identifies 101 for non-emergency enquiries and 999 for emergencies, including immediate danger or violence. It also links reporting options and accessibility support. A comment on Street Crime UK's page is not a police report and may not reach the investigating team.
Share observations with police rather than publishing private addresses or identifying uninvolved people. Keep what you personally observed separate from what someone else told you. A matching name or resemblance in an old photograph is not confirmation of identity. The purpose of supplying a reference is to help the relevant team assess information in the correct case.
Make a correction easy to assess
A useful correction contains the Street Crime UK page link, the exact passage at issue, a proposed factual change and the official update supporting it. Include the update's publication date. 'This is wrong' gives little to check; identifying which date, status or attribution changed allows the existing account to be compared with the newer evidence.
Keep changes specific. A later court outcome may update an earlier appeal without making the fact of its original publication inaccurate. A revised source may correct one figure while leaving the rest of a chronology intact. Our contact page prepares text to send through the linked Street Crime UK accounts; it does not automatically submit a correction or promise a response time. Use it to prepare a focused request and keep a copy of the supporting link.
Sources and scope
A guide to historical context, source updates and reporting routes. Named examples remain dated accounts; no present wanted, custody or appeal status is certified. It is not legal advice or a substitute for contacting the responsible force.