Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 Source: Northern Daily News (CN ON) Copyright: 2007, Osprey Media Group Inc. Contact: http://www.northernnews.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2315 Author: Alex Ivanov PROGRAM PROVING ITS WORTH Many of you may not realize it but January has been officially designated as Crime Stoppers month sense the mid 1980's. Now that you know this your next question may be what is Crime Stoppers. Crime Stoppers is a not for profit community based charitable program involving the co-operative efforts of the community, the media and the police in the fight against crime. This program encourages the public to call with information concerning crimes that have been committed, are being committed or are about to be committed. Crime Stoppers is based on the simple principle that for every crime committed someone other than the criminal has information that might solve it. When a person calls to report information that they have on a crime they are not required to identify themselves nor will they ever have to testify in court. Crime stoppers do not subscribe to call display, this way the caller's identity is never revealed. Another drawing card for people to call other than not having to identify themselves is the cash reward that they may receive if the information given is used to successfully solve the crime. Crime stoppers are presently being used in several countries all over the world. The Province of Ontario has 39 Crime Stopper Programs with the Near North Crime Stoppers covering the Temiskaming district. The Near North Crime Stoppers Program came into being in 1988 and has paid out $99,933.00 in rewards since it inception. For the year 2006 the Tri-Town Region Crime Stoppers Program received 64 tips. These tips contributed to285 arrests and 304 cases being cleared. Some other interesting facts are that $86,927.00 in stolen property was recovered and $270,875.00 in drugs was taken off the streets. These statistics clearly show that Crime Stoppers is working in our community. Fighting crime is everyone' business and with Crime Stoppers this is made easy. The choice is yours, if you know that a crime has been committed, is being committed or is about to be committed will you call. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek