N.B. Crime Stoppers will not change its handling of anonymous tips, president says

The president of New Brunswick Crime Stoppers says there is no plan to change the way anonymous tips are dealt with after RCMP revealed they don't know who submitted false tips about Michel Vienneau.

Those false tips led to Vienneau's fatal shooting by Bathurst police more than five years ago.

"It was an unfortunate incident in Bathurst," Yvon Comeau said in an interview with CBC New Brunswick News host Harry Forestell.

"We look at the total picture and we look at the money we saved on illegal drugs being on the street and property that is stolen. That is the success of our program."

No changes

Crime Stoppers has 18 branches throughout the province that receive tips and pass them on to local police forces and the RCMP for investigation. Comeau said there are no plans to change the way the tips are received before being passed on.

"A false tip, we don't know that until it goes to the proper authorities and they of course conclude their investigation and decide whether it's a false tip," he said. "We don't know at the time when we receive it whether it's false or not."

Tips can be submitted to Crime Stoppers by phone, text and through an online form. The civilian-run program takes the information, strips out any identifying information and then passes it along to the relevant police force.

Crime Stoppers said it has no way of keeping track of how many of its tips turn out to be false. There is no count and no followup for fraudulent tips either.

The Crime Stoppers website states it doesn't use caller ID and IP addresses are "not available to us."

Comeau said up to November 2019, Crime Stoppers had received 2,200 tips that were passed on to policing authorities. It's not known how much was paid out in rewards for those tips, although the organization is told when a tipster should be paid.

"Since 1985, we recovered over $8.5 million in stolen property and we kept over $70 million worth of drugs off the streets and contributed to almost 9,000 arrests."

Comeau confirmed those amounts were for New Brunswick Crime Stoppers.

Reward offered

Vienneau's family has offered a $10,000 reward for information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of people involved in the shooting, which could include the tipster.

Comeau said the success of the Crime Stoppers program is based on the tips it pays out in rewards for successful resolutions by police.

"To tell you the truth, since 1985 we solved a lot of crime and we're successful," he said.

Investigation determines no crime

Nova Scotia RCMP carried out the investigation of Vienneau's shooting death on Jan. 12, 2015. He was shot by Bathurst Police Force Const. Mathieu Boudreau, one of six undercover officers waiting for Vienneau at the Bathurst train station, based on anonymous tips that he was trafficking drugs.

The 51-year-old Tracadie businessman was returning from a weekend trip to Montreal to watch a hockey game with his fiance, Annick Basque.

RCMP determined Vienneau wasn't trafficking drugs and found no evidence of criminal links.

Officers cleared

Boudreau and his partner Const. Patrick Bulger were cleared of wrongdoing last year following an arbitration hearing. They had been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the hearing.

Both officers were expected to begin to resume their duties on Jan. 20.

The provincial government has ordered a coroner's inquest into Vienneau's death. No date has been set.

An inquest is a formal court proceeding that allows for public presentation of evidence relating to a death to help clarify the facts and circumstances.

The coroner does not assign responsibility or blame, but there may be recommendations on how to prevent similar deaths in the future.