If there’s something strange in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call? Crime stoppers!
The Brant County Crime Stoppers is a local non-for-profit organization with one main goal; to help solve crime. Crime Stoppers has been running in Brantford since 1984. This year will be its thirty-sixth year in session and is running 986-1000 individual programs worldwide. 38 are in Ontario alone.
The local chapter in Brant County, is available to contact 24/7, and are ready to receive any tips about crimes. Crime Stoppers is an initiative to assist in solving crimes and is made accessible to anyone in the public.
The tips can be shared in three main ways; calling the Crime Stoppers number, filling in information on their website or texting the mobile number. The most effective way to leave a tip is through calling the branch local to you.
The branch’s Coordinator, who takes the calls, is trained to ask questions that search for detail so they can make the most of the report. The more detailed a tip is, the more helpful it will be.
“Crime Stoppers is a partnership of the public, police and media which provides the community with a proactive program for people to anonymously assist the police in solving crime, contributing to an improved quality of life,” said chair of the Brant County Crime Stoppers, John Hart.
Crime Stoppers both serves and is for the benefit of the public. Anyone, including students at Laurier Brantford and any other part of the community are encouraged to use the service.
Crime Stoppers is for the greater good of the community. The organization, relying on anonymity, asks for clues, or, “tips”, from the public to help solve crimes. Anonymity is a priority for Crime Stoppers. Safety and security is necessary for the program. No names, phone numbers or anything that would conflict with anonymity of personal identity will be requested when leaving a tip.
“If you are concerned about passing information on, you’re worried that it might come back to you and cause you a problem, you can go through our program anonymously and you’re fine,” said Hart.
A fair amount of people are concerned about their identities being hidden when leaving a tip. The program is exceptionally safe and anonymity is guaranteed. Everything from start to finish is all done with anonymity and safety of the tipster in mind.
Electronic meetings for the board members of Crime Stoppers began last year. If some members are unavailable to make the meeting to decide on important information, a simple Skype call will solve the problem. Technology is making an outbreak in the organization and is only making it better.
Since technology has such a big impact on our world today, there is social media that can be found for Crime Stoppers, including Facebook and Twitter. These platforms are used to promote events and community activities hosted by the group.
“We are in the process of using these platforms to run a crime of the week segment in hopes to raise awareness of what Crime Stoppers is and how we use anonymity to help our local police keep the community safe,” said board member and head of social media, Emily Brockway, in an email.
Crime Stoppers still isn’t widely known. A useful service like this has setbacks. The organization needs more publicity, more volunteers and money to go towards the running of the program. Awareness is essential in organizations as such. With all the recent developments in social media and awareness for the organization, the service hopes to grow further.
“It’s a needed service that constantly needs to be expanded,” said Hart.
Crime Stoppers is very thankful for the ‘tipsters’ who provide tips to the program. As a reward for successful tips, the tipster may receive a monetary reward as a result of their service to Crime Stoppers spanning between $50 and $2000.
Fundraising is a big part of Crime Stoppers. Since the organization is non-for-profit, the money comes from generous members of the community, as well as from fundraising. There are local partners money comes from to support the organization including fundraisers, businesses, industries, service clubs and private donations. The money goes towards telephone services, accounting, program, as well as money for the tips given to ‘tipsters’.
The members of Crime Stoppers are eager to promote their organization and spread the word of the service. Making the community better is the goal, and Crime Stoppers is part of the solution. Bettering the community never looked so good!
To contact crime stoppers to report a crime, contact:
+1-(800)-222-8477 or www.crimestoppers-brant.ca
