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How Crime Stoppers Works
Someone other than the criminal has knowledge of the crime...
When somebody has information about a crime, they can call 266-6014. A dispatcher with one of our participating stations
takes the call and issues the caller a code number. At no time do we know who has called. This is how we ensure
that the caller remain anonymous if he or she chooses. Calls to Crime Stoppers are not traced and Crime Stoppers does not
have Caller ID. It is critical to the success of Crime Stoppers that if informants want to be anonymous, that all precautions
are taken to assure their identity is not known. By issuing a caller code number, Crime Stoppers is still able to provide
money to the person if the information leads to an arrest or recovery of illegal items.
At times, information about a crime needs to go directly to the police (e.g., following a wanted person or crime in progress)
. In these cases, as soon as possible after contacting the local police, Crime Stoppers should be contacted so a code
number can be issued.
If the information leads to an arrest, the police coordinator prepares a written summary of the incident and details how
the Crime Stoppers informant assisted. This information is presented to the Board the third Wednesday of each month.
By using a set criteria which allows for some discretion, the Board votes on an appropriate reward amount.
After a reward amount has been determined, the informant re-contacts the police coordinator and is told how to collect
their money. Currently, the informant goes to a downtown Madison business and identifies himself or herself to an employee
of the business by the code number only. This person working with Crime Stoppers then issues the informant the cash reward. Other means of paying an informant have been arranged at the request of the informant.
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