Last Friday, Key West Police Officers were able to make two felony arrests based on tips from citizens who called the Crime Stoppers phone number— 1-800-346-TIPS (8477).
One tipster turned in an alleged drug dealer in Bahama Village. Another tip to Crime Stoppers led to the arrest of a man police had been seeking for six months for exposing himself to young girls.
Crime Stoppers of the Keys pays as much as $1000 cash for information leading to a felony arrest.
Callers may remain completely anonymous. That guarantee protects them from possible retaliation, although a number of callers give their names and waive the reward simply because they want to see justice done.
Each caller is given a code number by which the information is identified. Crime Stoppers forwards the tip to the appropriate investigator— Monroe County Sheriff's Office, Key West Police Department, Florida Marine Patrol, Florida Highway Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard, Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement, and others. The investigator later reports the results to Crime Stoppers.
When the caller checks back— Crime Stoppers does not ask for telephone numbers— they relay to the caller whether the information yielded a reward. If so, they ask him or her to call back after the next scheduled board meeting to find out about the reward.
The Crime Stoppers board, all civilian volunteers, determines the amount of the reward, based on a number of factors in a standardized formula that includes the overall value of the tip in solving the crime, the value of property or drugs recovered, the seriousness of the crime, and the number of crimes solved or persons arrested.
When the tipster calls Crime Stoppers back about the reward, Crime Stoppers instructs him, or anyone he wants to send, to go to a certain local bank, and a certain teller, to pick up the reward, using the code number.
If a tipster gives the information directly to a police officer or detective, for example, at a crime scene, and wants to be eligible for a Crime Stoppers reward, he must call Crime Stoppers immediately after talking with the officer. He will not get any money if he waits until after an arrest is made.
Since the program's inception in 1991, tip information has cleared 123 criminal cases, resulted in 138 arrests, and recovered $145,000 in cash, stolen property and illegal drugs.
City Electric System is an active partner in the Crime Stoppers program. City Electric employees have just completed hanging 35 Crime Stopper sings on utility poles throughout Key West.