SCHOOLS TO PAY CRIME TIPSTERS

Students Enouraged to Trust the Faculty

Memphis and Shelby County public high schools will launch a program
today that will pay rewards averaging $200 to students who report
crimes or give information that prevents them.

In partnership with Crime Stoppers, the Trust Pays program is
designed to give students a way to report incidents at school
without fear of retribution. Students will tell a trusted faculty
member, who will tell the principal.

The Plough Foundation will provide money to pay rewards.

Only the faculty member will know who the student tipster is, said
Buddy Chapman, executive director of Crime Stoppers of Memphis and
Shelby County.

"Given the crime problems we face in Memphis, the obvious
intervention point is youth and the obvious intervention point for
that are the schools," he said.

Crime Stoppers tips have helped solve an average of two crimes a day
since it started in 1981, but Chapman said tips rarely came from schools.

In meeting with principals, students, teachers and others, Chapman
realized the kind of immediate information principals need, such as
when kids are planning to fight after school or who has drugs in a
locker, isn't something the normal Crime Stoppers program would cover.

There were 613 reported incidents of illegal drug possession and 237
weapons possession incidents recorded in the Memphis and Shelby
County public schools last year, according to zero-tolerance offense
data from both districts.

Supts. Carol Johnson of Memphis schools and Bobby Webb of the county
schools were both instrumental in the creation of Trust Pays, Chapman said.

Johnson said Trust Pays should help fight a message the gangs are promoting.

"Unfortunately, there is a subculture today that suggests the wrong
message, that tells students 'Don't be a snitch,'" she said. "To
help students do the right thing, to help them ignore the bad advice
- -- we have to give them a program and a process that works for them."

Webb said the program "gets at the heart of a moral society. It's
what we like to call a 'teachable moment' and one that can be
repeated time and again: Crime doesn't pay. Trusting the right adult
does pay. Doing the right thing always pays dividends."

Diane Rudner, chairwoman of the Plough Foundation, said, "In the
end, it is the students themselves that have to learn it's up to
them to control their environment. In this case, it may mean
trusting someone enough to report when they feel uncomfortable
about what's happening in their own environment."

Shelby County Mayor AC Wharton agreed. "It is the responsibility of
not only law enforcement, governments, community organizations and
schools to provide safe learning environments for youth in our
schools, but there is a role for students to play as well," he said.

"This project will create a system for students who desire to assist
us in ensuring their schools are safe, while allowing them to be
youth advocates against crime."

Chapman said he hopes the program will help bring a cultural shift
where the community at large recognizes its responsibility in
stopping violence.

Currently, "a wall of distrust" exists that keeps people from
sharing information they know with law enforcement and school administrators.

"We've got to re-establish that trust in the system," Chapman said.
"We've got to get them to tell us what's going on.