SD&G – Seaway Valley Crime Stoppers saw fewer tipsters and payouts in 2014 but those valuable tips led to more proceeds of crime being seized across the region.
O.P.P. coordinator Tylor Copeland says they had 603 tips called into their hotline (358 tips and 245 follow-up tips) – roughly 400 fewer tips than in 2013.
As a result of police investigations from those tips, 10 charges were laid and $56,800 in drugs and property was seized.
In 2013, there were 37 charges laid, however, the amount of drugs and property seized was $56,011.
As a result of their information in 2014, tipsters received a total of $1,075 in rewards. In 2013, it was $1,730.
Since it began in 1992, Seaway Valley Crime Stoppers has paid out $135,340 as rewards for information that leads to the arrest of criminals in SD&G.
The program is a three-way partnership between the public, media and the police which allows people to call Crime Stoppers (1-800-222-TIPS (8477)) and anonymously provide information about unsolved crimes, crimes about to happen or the location of people wanted by the law.
Crime Stoppers was started in 1976 in Albuquerque, N.M., after police had trouble solving the murder of a university student during a gas station robbery.
Like many Crime Stoppers programs do nowadays, the crime was re-enacted on television and investigators received a tip leading to the two men responsible, solving the murder in 72 hours.
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