TIPS TO CRIME STOPPERS SPUR RECORD DRUG SEIZURES

Anonymous tips from the public to Crime Stoppers has resulted in a
staggering 525 per cent jump in drug seizures compared to last year,
and a 326 per cent spike in charges laid by police, the organization
reported Monday.

Calgary Crime Stoppers said it is on a record-breaking pace this year
with the information it is receiving and police are seeing the benefit.

Crime Stoppers data to the end of September show 239 charges were laid
from information gleaned from anonymous phone and online tips,
compared to 56 at the same point last year. Police have also
seized$14.4 million worth of drugs, up sharply from $2.3 million in
2008.

President Roger Monette attributes the jump to Crime Stoppers'
anonymity and a new focus on televised reenactments. "We've increased
the re-enactments that we've done and put out higher profile
re-enactments," he said Monday.

Police say they hope people are seeing the ties between drug sales and
violence and reporting that activity.

"People are hopefully seeing the correlation between the drug problem
and violent crime, because there definitely is a correlation there, so
maybe that's one of the reasons why they're making that nexus between
the two and coming forward," said Staff Sgt. Colin Chisholm.

In September alone, four marijuana grow operations were discovered
from information received by Crime Stoppers. Those busts resulted in
pot worth $3.7 million taken off city streets,

While payments to tipsters have also increased correspondingly, said
Monette, the main reason for tips isn't financial-- about two-thirds
of rewards are never claimed.

Mount Royal University criminologist Doug King said it's important to
note that the number of tips is only up marginally; there have been
2,860 tips in 2009 compared to 2,724 last year, representing a five
per cent increase in calls and e-mails.

"What is more intriguing and more interesting is the number of quality
tips that must be coming in simply because there are more charges that
are coming out of those tips," said King.

King said it's possible that people are becoming more aware of ways to
report crimes and turning to Crime Stoppers.

"It's not because crime is increasing that tips are increasing, it's
because of something that Crime Stoppers is doing," said King.

To King, Crime Stoppers differs from reporting crimes to police with
the promise of anonymity to tipsters.

"For some people, that's an important guarantee that they get . . .
that it's not going to come back to them. The reality is, if someone
goes forward to the police to make a complaint, it probably is richer
information for the police because they can then interview you and
visit you and go back for more information."

However, Crime Stoppers tipsters receive a user name and password to
follow up their tips online and sometimes are asked additional
information from police without losing anonymity, said Monette.

Calgary Crime Stoppers, which started in 1982, will introduce
text-message tips early next year.