Current News |
As Prices Rise, Crime
Tipsters Work Overtime
By SHAILA DEWAN and BRENDA GOODMAN
Published: May 18, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/us/18crimestopper.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
To gas prices, foreclosure rates and the
cost of rice, add this rising economic
indicator: the number of tips to the
police from people hoping to collect
reward money.
Calls to the Southwest Florida Crime
Stoppers hot line in the first quarter
of this year were up 30 percent over
last year. San Antonio had a 44 percent
increase. Cities and towns from Detroit
to Omaha to Beaufort County, N.C., all
report increases of 25 percent or more
in the first quarter, with tipsters
telling operators they need the money
for rent, light bills or baby formula.
“For this year, everyone that’s called
has pretty much been just looking for
money,” said Sgt. Lawrence Beller, who
answers Crime Stoppers calls at the
Sussex County, N.J., sheriff’s office.
“That’s as opposed to the last couple of
years, where some people were just sick
of the crime and wanting to do something
about it.”
As a result, many programs report a
substantial increase in Crime
Stopper-related arrests and recovered
property, as callers turn in neighbors,
grandchildren or former boyfriends in
exchange for a little cash.
On Friday, a woman called the Regional
Crime Stoppers line in Macon, Ga., to
find out when she could pick up her
reward money for a recent tip. She was
irritated to learn that she would have
to wait until Monday.
“I’m in a bind, I’m really in a bind,”
she told the hot-line operator. “There’s
a lot of stuff I know, but I didn’t open
my mouth. If I weren’t in a bind, I
wouldn’t open my mouth.”
When she learned the money was not
available, she said she would call back
with the whereabouts of another suspect
whom she had just seen “going down the
road.”
Elaine Cloyd, the president of Crime
Stoppers U.S.A., a national organization
of local tip programs, said that not all
of the 323 programs in the country had
reported an increase in calls, and that
some, like those in Lafayette, La., and
Broward County, Fla., attributed most of
their spike to increased publicity or
technological improvements like
accepting tips by text message. But
there was no doubt, Ms. Cloyd said, that
the faltering economy was a significant
factor.
“When the economy gets rough, people
have to be creative,” she said. “They
might give a tip where they wouldn’t
have in the past.”
For tips that bring results, programs in
most places pay $50 to $1,000, with some
jurisdictions giving bonuses for help
solving the most serious crimes, or an
extra “gun bounty” if a weapon is
recovered. In Sussex County, the average
payment for a tip that results in an
arrest is $400, Sergeant Beller said.
“Usually you deliver the money in an
unmarked car and meet them somewhere,”
he said. “But these people come right to
the office and walk right through the
front door.”
Some Crime Stoppers coordinators say
their program appeals to community
spirit and emphasize that not everyone
who calls is after money. But their
advertising makes no bones about the
benefits of a good tip.
“Crime doesn’t pay but we do,” say the
mobile billboards cruising Jacksonville,
Fla. A poster in Jackson, Tenn., draws a
neat equation: “Ring Ring + Bling Bling
= Cha-Ching.” The bling, in this case,
is a pair of handcuffs.
Some coordinators suggest that rising
crime rates might be driving up the
number of tips. But in Jackson, Tenn.,
Sgt. Mike Johnson said his call volume
had gone from two or three a day to
eight or nine. He theorized that rising
crime there was not a factor because the
program advertises steadily regardless
of trends. “People just need money,”
Sergeant Johnson said.
Sergeant Johnson has been a Crime
Stoppers coordinator for 15 years,
watching crime rates and tips fluctuate.
But, he said, “I’ve never seen an
increase like it is now.”
Crime Stoppers programs strictly protect
the anonymity of callers. Each tip is
assigned a number, and if the tip
results in an arrest, the caller can
collect a cash reward, usually by going
to a designated bank. Some programs pay
tipsters within hours of an arrest;
others have monthly meetings to approve
reward amounts.
Not only have the number of tips
increased, several program coordinators
said, but people are also more diligent
about calling back to find out if and
when they can collect.
Jim Cogan, director of the Silicon
Valley Crime Stoppers program in
California, said most of the rewards
offered by his program used to go
unclaimed. But with large numbers of
foreclosures and heavy job losses, Mr.
Cogan said, “now we’re seeing rewards
get picked up right away and our
tipsters being frustrated when tips
aren’t available as quickly as they need
the money.”
Karen Keen, the tips coordinator for
First Coast Crime Stoppers in
Jacksonville, said she had, on occasion,
been given approval to pay tipsters
early, if they persuaded her that they
needed the money to pay a light bill or
some other necessity.
Some people have made a cottage industry
of calling in tips. Although repeat
callers do not give their names,
operators recognize their voices.
“We have people out there that,
realistically, this could be their job,”
said Sgt. Zachary Self, who answers
Crime Stoppers calls for the Macon
Police Department.
“Two or three arrests per week, you
could make $700, $750 per week,”
Sergeant Self said. “You could make
better than a minimum-wage job.”
He said that his program typically
averaged 215 arrests per year, but that
this year it had already hit 100, and he
projected it would make more than 300, a
record, by year’s end.
In some cases, the quality of the tips
is lagging as people grasp for any shred
of information that might result in an
arrest. A woman in Macon, for example,
recently called to report that a family
member — who was wanted for burglary and
whose name and address were already
known to the police — was at home. His
home.
Such a tip might seem worthless on its
face, said Jean Davis, who took the
call. But many police departments do not
have the personnel to watch a suspect’s
comings and going. In that case, the
young man was arrested.
Typically, the greatest number of calls
comes in response to news coverage of a
specific crime or a weekly list of
wanted suspects. At other times, people
call to report a crime the police might
not even be aware of. Or, they might
just call to report the whereabouts of
someone with an old warrant. Warrant
tips for minor crimes generate the
lowest rewards, but that has not stopped
people from turning in suspects.
“We’re getting a lot more calls related
to wanted persons,” said Sgt. Tommi
Bridgeman, who coordinates the Beaufort
County Crime Stoppers program. “People
who know that these people have warrants
out for their arrest are calling to turn
them in.”
Sergeant Bridgeman said her calls were
up 25 percent even though the program’s
one advertisement, a patrol car
emblazoned with the hot-line number, was
out of commission.
“Folks around here need the money,” she
said. “There’s not a lot of jobs here.
We try to pay out every two weeks
because we know they need the money.”
Places with quick payments and
particularly bleak economic conditions
tended to report increases in call
volume. Lee County, Fla., had the
highest rate for home foreclosures in
the United States in February and March,
and its once-plentiful construction jobs
have dried up.
Last week, the Crime Stoppers
coordinator there, Trish Routte, got a
call from a man reporting drug activity,
a tip that paid him $450. It was his
second call in a week, said Ms. Routte,
who recognized the caller’s voice.
“He told me he really didn’t want to
call but he just had a new grandbaby and
he needed the money,” Ms. Routte said.
Economic problems for families, Ms.
Routte acknowledged, were good business
for Crime Stoppers. “We’re kind of
banking on that, really,” she said. “If
it helps put dinner on the table for
somebody, that’s wonderful.”
|
|
|
|