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Crime Stop adds website to anonymous tipping options

Published:Friday | September 20, 2019 | 12:30 AMNickoy Wilson/Gleaner Writer
Prudence Gentles, manager of Crime Stop, addressing a Gleaner Editors’ Forum yesterday.
Prudence Gentles, manager of Crime Stop, addressing a Gleaner Editors’ Forum yesterday.

In an effort to boost its efforts in helping the police crack more cases, Crime Stop has created a website dedicated to collecting tips.

The website – 311tips.com – allows persons to anonymously submit tips in the form of text, photos, and videos.

Crime Stop Manager Prudence Gentles said that it was a strategic move to use a website instead of a mobile application.

“It will not stay on your phone, which is the beauty about it because people say, ‘Why don’t you have an app?’ An app stays on the phone. In our culture, you know if someone sees you with a Crime Stop app on your phone, that could be detrimental to you.

“Therefore, once you’ve sent it off, it will give you a code number, which will then enable you to follow that tip by calling Crime Stop at 311 later on, saying, ‘This is my number. What has happened?’,” Gentles said at a Gleaner Editors’ Forum at the newspaper’s North Street offices in downtown Kingston yesterday.

Gentles said that the website is targeted at young people.

“The appeal is that especially young persons – every young person has a phone now – can use it to send information on criminal activity to Crime Stop,” she said.

A team from the University of Technology, Jamaica, has been working on the website for the past three years as their contribution to the fight against crime.

As of August 31, Crime Stop – which is celebrating its 30th anniversary – has received over 28,000 tips, resulting in 2,637 arrest, the seizure of $800 million in narcotics and $500 million in property recovered since it was established.

A total of $40.5 million in rewards has also been paid out.

nickoy.wilson@gleanerjm.com