Tips to Crime Stoppers way up on P.E.I.

Social media and the ability to report tips online aremaking a huge difference in fighting crime on P.E.I.

Phil Pitts, the co-ordinator of P.E.I. Crime Stoppers, said he received 566 tips in 2016, up 25 per cent from the previous year.

"Drug seizures, break and enters, home invasions, frauds, thefts, warrants of fugitives everything you can think of," Pitts said on CBC's Mainstreet.

Success from social media

More than $3 million in stolen property and drugs have been recovered since Crime Stoppers began on P.E.I. in 1989, Pitts said. About $118,000 of that total came last year.

'People are reporting crimes or providing information out of concern for their community and not necessarily for the cash.- Phil Pitts

Much of Crime Stoppers' recent success has come from using Facebook, Twitter and Youtube to post information about crimes on P.E.I. And there are now three ways people can submit a tip: online through its web page, by text message or by calling to an off-Island call service.

Pitts said the number of tips has doubled over the last five years from the time when calling by phone was the only way to report a crime. He said people are more comfortable just sending the information electronically.

"I think it's even more anonymous than actual talking to another person," he said. "The guarantee of anonymity is key to the whole program."

How it works

Here's how Pitts says it works:

The tip comes in, and is entered into a web-based program. Pitts makes sure there is no information in the tip that can identify anybody. The person is given an ID number to associate with the tip. Pitts passes the tip on the to the law enforcement agency in the relevant jurisdiction. If an arrest is made, the person who gave the tip contacts Crime Stoppers again, and provides the ID number. Pitts informs the person how to collect the reward.

More than $2,000 in cash rewards were handed out last year, Pitts said, but noted that's not the only reason people contact Crime Stoppers.

"It's really amazing on P.E.I., and a lot of the programs find people are reporting crimes or providing information out of concern for their community and not necessarily for the cash."

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