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[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]That's right[/color]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/us/18crimestopper.html?no_interstitial
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/us/18crimestopper.html?no_interstitial
Calls to the Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers hot line in the first quarter of this year were up 30 percent over last year. San Antonio had a 44 percent increase. Cities and towns from Detroit to Omaha to Beaufort County, N.C., all report increases of 25 percent or more in the first quarter, with tipsters telling operators they need the money for rent, light bills or baby formula.
On Friday, a woman called the Regional Crime Stoppers line in Macon, Ga., to find out when she could pick up her reward money for a recent tip. She was irritated to learn that she would have to wait until Monday.
"I'm in a bind, I'm really in a bind," she told the hot-line operator. "There's a lot of stuff I know, but I didn't open my mouth. If I weren't in a bind, I wouldn't open my mouth."
When she learned the money was not available, she said she would call back with the whereabouts of another suspect whom she had just seen "going down the road."
For tips that bring results, programs in most places pay $50 to $1,000, with some jurisdictions giving bonuses for help solving the most serious crimes, or an extra "gun bounty" if a weapon is recovered. In Sussex County, the average payment for a tip that results in an arrest is $400, Sergeant Beller said.
"Usually you deliver the money in an unmarked car and meet them somewhere," he said. "But these people come right to the office and walk right through the front door."
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Even bravery is on the rise
[/color]"We're getting a lot more calls related to wanted persons," said Sgt. Tommi Bridgeman, who coordinates the Beaufort County Crime Stoppers program. "People who know that these people have warrants out for their arrest are calling to turn them in."
Last week, the Crime Stoppers coordinator there, Trish Routte, got a call from a man reporting drug activity, a tip that paid him $450. It was his second call in a week, said Ms. Routte, who recognized the caller's voice.
"He told me he really didn't want to call but he just had a new grandbaby and he needed the money," Ms. Routte said.
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Our economy really needs to pull together[/color]
