A new Crime Stoppers program has been started up on campus at Laurier. As an offshoot of Brant-Brantford Crime Stoppers, and in collaboration with Special Constable Services, the new program has been made especially for the Laurier campus.

However, James Yuhasz, Special Constable Supervisor, says that Crime Stoppers may not prevent assaults.

“A lot of those things [assaults] were spur-of-the-moment things, so the likelihood that Crimes Stoppers will limit the assaults – probably not,” says Yuhasz. “I don’t know if it will have a big impact on that type of thing.”

Diane Kelly, the founder of WLU Brant-Brantford Crime Stoppers was more optimistic about the organization’s role on campus.

“We can get more information about the assaults, to make sure that the people who caused them are being looked after,” says Kelly. “It’s more of a prevention thing.”
Crime Stoppers is designed as a collaborative effort between the community and police. Residents from the community can supply anonymous tips through calling or texting and then the information is passed on to the police through Crimes Stoppers. If the information provided leads to an arrest, the ‘tipster’ receives a cash reward.

Kelly brings up the anonymous aspect of Crime Stoppers, stressing that the organization works just fine without knowing who’s supplying the facts.
“Your identity is stripped, your IP address is stripped, we don’t have call display, we don’t want to know who you are, we don’t care who you are, as long as you have information for us,” says Kelly.

Crimes Stoppers will be holding a movie night on March 31 at the Student Center from 7 – 12 pm in order to raise funds to get the program going. Donations are welcome at the door.