LOCAL CRIME STOPPERS NOW TAKING TIPS VIA WEB

Sometimes crime-fighting tips come from cyberspace. Sometimes they
seemingly come from outer space.

No matter where they come from, Crime Stoppers of Grey-Bruce passes
them on to police, stripped of any detail that could identify the
informant, said program co-ordinator Dean Rutherford.

Such tips led to 43 arrests in 2008, he said.

Last year was the first time web-based tips were accepted locally.
Since the startup around May, cyberspace delivered 42 anonymous
reports out of 432 tips in all of 2008. Of those tips, 32 qualified
for $6,950 last year, though just nine collected their $2,125 share.
Lots of people don't want the money, Rutherford said.

The payouts range from $50 for a report on a Highway Traffic Act
offence such as driving while suspended, to $2,000 for critical
information about a giant marijuana grow-op. The most the program has
paid out is $1,200 for a drug bust, Rutherford said.

The amount of payout for tips is determined by many things, including
the seriousness of the crime, the amount of drugs or stolen property
seized and whether it was the only information police had to act on,
Rutherford said.

Every year the program receives a few tips from psychics too. Often
they're about cold cases or high profile missing person's cases that
have made the news, Rutherford said. None of these out-of-this-world
tips has produced results yet, but he still passes along the
information to police.

"Sometimes they're interesting," Rutherford said. "I let them (police)
know the type of source, not the source, but the type of source . . .
so that they're not digging up foundations for no reason."

Tips were off by about 50 overall from 2007's totals, though that year
many tips were received about the swans killed in Harrison Park,
Rutherford said.

One reason for the reduced tip count could also have to do with a
particularly successful number of tips that put some members of the
Owen Sound drug subculture out of business for a while, Rutherford
said.

"We'd been getting tip information from different tipsters in Owen
Sound and then the local police would do a major roundup. And so they
were put away in the can. And so those tipsters aren't calling us back
anymore because those crimes have been solved."

The web should bump up the tip count, he thinks, especially as it
becomes better known. He mentions the web tips address,
www.crimestop-gb.org ,when speaking at schools particularly.

Rutherford says the web tips allow the chance for continuing
correspondence with a tipster. Follow-up questions can be posted,
which the tipster may answer.

Some people may feel more comfortable sending tips via the Internet
because then Crime Stoppers staff have no opportunity to identify them
by their voice. Rutherford said the web tips are received via a secure
server. Tips could even be sent while vacationing in Australia about
matters in Grey- Bruce, if tipsters wished, he said.

But the down side is it's harder to assess credibility over the
Internet and you can't necessarily question the tipster like you can
when they phone, Rutherford said.

About 75 per cent of tips are drug-related but Crime Stoppers pays out
for all kinds of tips, including concerns about child welfare, which
are sent on to the Children's Aid Society, environmental concerns,
which go to the Ministry of the Environment, and wildlife concerns
such as poaching, which are handed to the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The Crime Stoppers program has existed for 30 years. It was
established by a Canadian-born man in Albuquerque, N. M. -- a police
officer who took it upon himself to broadcast a re-enactment of a
crime and offer a reward of his own money. He solved the crime. The
broadcast also produced tips about other crimes and so Crime Stoppers
was born.

More than 1,200 programs in 24 countries have helped seize drugs and
recover stolen property worth more than $8.5 billion. Locally more
than $31 million in drugs and property has been recovered since 1987.