Crime Stoppers Of Minnesota Helps Local Communities

“This way is a good way to get information from the public without having to get involved with the system or law enforcement,” said Wadena County Sheriff Michael Carr.

Crime Stoppers of Minnesota has set out to provide a safe place for anyone to share information about a crime, criminal or fugitive.

“They may be fearful of the police, they may be wanted for something or they may not want to be identified, but they do want to provide that information,” said John Elder, Crime Stoppers of Minnesota Vice Chair.

Crime Stoppers is meant to be an easy way to help out. All you have to do is pick up the phone, dial the number and leave your anonymous tip. The phone call will go to a national call center where all incoming calls are not traceable.

“It goes through a washing software where it scrubs any of the sender’s information so we don’t have access to it,” Elder said.

Once the tip is given, the independent organization passes it along to the local agencies.

“Law enforcement in any region or state is only as good as the people sometimes who help us and there is always someone out there that has some information,” Sheriff Carr said.

Tipsters can receive up to a $1000 reward depending on the value of the information. Crime Stoppers of Minnesota will often send out prepaid Visa cards to banks where the tipster will pick it up to keep their anonymity.

“People live with these secrets and some of them are really large, and we encourage anyone with information on any crime to call Crime Stoppers and give us a tip because it’s going to help somebody’s life in the long run, and that is really what we want to do,” Elder said. “We want to get crimes solved and pay people in the process.”

It’s a process that has worked well for many agencies, including the Wadena County Sheriff’s Office.

“Mainly what we have is a lot of drug cases, a lot of tips on drug information,” said Sheriff Carr.

No matter the type of crime, where it happened or when, you can always call Crime Stoppers.

“It can speed cases up faster because we are not putting so many resources into it,” Sheriff Carr said.

You can also leave an anonymous type on their website or smartphone app.