CRIME STOPPERS GETS MORE TIPS, BUT CLOSES FEWER CASES

In 2007, there was a 20 per cent increase in the number of tips that
came into the program, but a significant drop in the number of
arrests. There are several reasons, says board chairman Barrie Hewstan.

Katherine Dedyna
Times Colonist

The number of tips to Greater Victoria Crime Stoppers increased by
almost 20 per cent in 2007 over 2006, but the number of arrests --
called "cases closed" -- dropped by half. The chapter got about 500
tips last year -- up from about 400 in 2006 -- but only 13 cases were
cleared in 2007 compared with 27 the previous year.

Last year's arrests included five drug cases, one robbery, one theft,
one weapons charge and five crimes classified as "others." In 2007,
more than $330,000 worth of illegal drugs was seized, and over $21,000
worth of property recovered.

Rewards to 20 tipsters totalled less than $5,000.

Crime Stoppers board chairman Barrie Hewstan explains the decline by
saying that the tips are increasingly less specific.

"I think our effort to get the message out in the community is not as
strong as it has been in the past," Hewstan says.

As well, more news reports of a crime suggest the public call the
investigating police officer without giving the Crime Stoppers number
as well.

"They don't necessarily want to become involved for a number of
reasons," he says.

The public "either have forgotten there is such a program out there or
they don't understand what it is all about."

Nor is the program able to blow its own horn because that could focus
unwelcome attention on tipsters.

In the last two years there have three or four "very high profile
incidents that have been solved, from environmental crimes to computer
crimes to murders, but we can't focus on an individual case because,
again, it would identify individuals involved who may have phoned in
on it," Hewstan says.

Hewstan got involved with Crime Stoppers after seeing the trauma of
bank tellers who had been victimized by robbers -- something he
encountered six times in his 25 years working with Coast Capital
credit union.

Other factors behind the drop in closed cases are linked to the
shortage of manpower in all police departments and that has led, in
turn, to a drop in the time to investigate the tips, says Const. Ann
Zimmerman of Crime Stoppers.

Numbers also depend on police files of a given year, she notes.

Major police files such as the slaying earlier this year of Lindsay
Buziak also cut into investigation time.

"Without a doubt that would have an impact on the resources available
to investigate other tips on file," says Const. Mark Poppe.

The program is also contending with fewer tips about specific crimes
and more calls with vague drug-related information, even though Crime
Stoppers ads do not even portray drug crimes.

Vague calls take "an incredible amount" of manpower and surveillance
to investigate. "We just don't have a tonne of surveillance teams out
there available to do the kind of work that needs to be done,"
Zimmerman says.

The first indication of an offence is often from a Crime Stoppers tip,
but police must build their case on other evidence. A criminal flying
under police radar can be flagged and investigated as a result.

Zimmerman's overall message is that Crime Stoppers really does work.

"We get vague tips and also phenomenally precise information. The good
ones are amazing."