A way to namelessly help pass along information about non-emergent crimes
If you have non-emergent information about a crime and wish to remain anonymous, Crime Stoppers is a way to get that information to law enforcement that is safe and confidential. Attendees at the Crime Stoppers presentation at the Gordon Howard Centre last week learned all about how Crime Stoppers helps our community and its members pass along these tips while keeping their identities private.
Rod Downey, a liaison for Crime Stoppers from the RCMP, made the presentation. He explained that Crime Stoppers is not actually a law enforcement organization but because of previous strong marketing campaigns sometimes people confuse the non-profit with law enforcement.
“It is completely a charitable organization run by volunteers, not associated with police. There’s an independent board of governors. And, why am I here and not them? Each board has a police liaison or a police contact, typically, and that’s my role in Manitoba Crime Stoppers and they ask for the public’s assistance in solving the crimes,” he said
Downey explained that Crime Stoppers started in 1976 and it was actually started by a Canadian, Greg MacAleese, when he was working in the States.
The idea to create Crime Stoppers came from the understanding that people don’t come forward to report or give information about crimes largely for two reasons. Either they are afraid that people will know that they are the source of the tip and fear for their safety stops them from reporting. The other reason is down to apathy. To combat this, Crime Stoppers allows tipsters in good faith to give tips anonymously so that even law enforcement doesn’t know where the tip came from and they also offer cash rewards for certain information which can incentivize tips.
Manitoba Crime Stoppers is one of three Crime Stoppers groups in the province as Winnipeg and Brandon have their own groups. Manitoba Crime Stoppers covers the areas of Manitoba not covered by the other two city groups. These three groups are part of 80 groups that network in Canada.
You can now go online to report to Crime Stoppers, however, for those who prefer, their phone number is still active.
“Manitoba Crime Stoppers uses a call center based just out of Toronto. The value to people calling in is that someone from Toronto they’re not going to recognize your voice,” said Downey.
When you submit a tip you will get a numerical code. Downey advises that you don’t tell anyone you’ve submitted a Crime Stoppers tip and keep that code private. If your tip is deemed to have been useful in the investigation, you can follow up using that code and there is a possibility that you will have received a reward for your tip. Retrieving his reward will also be based on your code so as to keep everything anonymous.
Because there is a delay in receiving the tips and getting them to law enforcement, Crime Stoppers should not be used in emergency situations. In emergencies, residents should call 911.
“Just in the last 12 months from Manitoba Crimestoppers over 1000 tips have come in. We’ve shared 291 of them so almost 30 per cent,” said Downey.
He emphasized that even if you know of a crime that happened outside of our region you can share tips with Crime Stoppers because they have a network and can get the tips to the proper places even outside of our area.
To learn more about Crime Stoppers visit their website at https://manitobacrimestoppers.com
You can also submit and follow up on tips there and over the phone at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
