- What Is Crime Stopper?
- Who Administers Crime Stopper?
- How Does Crime Stopper Work?
- Where Does The Money Come From?
- What Is The Role Of The News Media?
- How Is Public Awareness Maintained?
What Is Crime Stopper?
Crime Stopper is a program established on October 5, 1981, by a group of private citizens in cooperation with the Toledo Police Department.
The program is intended to aid all law enforcement agencies in the Toledo and the surrounding area, as well as nationwide. The purpose is to obtain information concerning unsolved crimes for which all previous leads have been exhausted.
Without a Crime Stopper Program, information might never be uncovered and brought to the attention of the proper authorities.
Crime Stopper is a non-profit corporation administered by a board comprised of a group of concerned citizens of the Toledo metropolitan area. This group represents a broad spectrum of citizen interests.
Members of the Board of Trustees serve on a voluntary basis and meet regularly. The main purpose of these meetings is to monitor the progress of the program and the distribution of rewards.
Crime Stopper operates with the assistance of the Toledo Police Department which assigns personnel to record the information received on incoming calls.
The Crime Stopper telephone is located in the Investigations Section of the Central Station of the Toledo Police Department. The telephone is attended twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
When a call is received, it is logged and the caller is issued an identification number. The number is used in all future contacts. The caller remains anonymous.
If the information supplied leads to an arrest and indictment, the caller may be eligible for a reward in the amount determined by the Rewards Committee. To be eligible for a reward from the Crime Stopper Program, the caller must provide information through the Crime Stopper Program at 255-1111. Crime Stopper will not pay rewards for information provided through other means.
Crime Stopper is a non-profit organization funded entirely by contributions from all available sources. Business, industry, foundations, charitable trusts and civic organizations, as well as the general public.
All contributions are used exclusively to pay rewards. There is no paid staff and the Board of Trustees serves on a voluntary basis.
In order to publicize Crime Stopper, an unsolved crime is announced each week.
The "Crime of the Week" program keeps the public informed and helps to locate witnesses who may not have realized that they have observed a crime being committed.
Crime Stopper does not pay for television, radio or newspaper time and space. The news media provides this public service, which represents their contributions to the Crime Stopper Program.
Whenever a reward has been granted to a recipient, the caller's assigned number is announced by the news media with the request for that individual to call 255-1111, to arrange for payment of the reward.
To maintain public awareness of the program, the details of an unsolved crime will be supplied weekly to the news media by the police coordinator. The following persons will not be eligible for a reward:
* A commissioned law enforcement officer and members of his immediate family.
* Any other employee in the criminal justice system.
* The perpetrator.
* The victim of the crime
It will be the exclusively authority of the Rewards Committee to determine the maximum amount of any reward.
The Chief of the Toledo Police Department, the Lucas County Prosecutor and other law enforcement agencies throughout the area endorses the program.