Pubdate: Mon, 07 Jul 2008
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2008 The Tribune Co.
Contact: http://www.tbo.com/news/opinion/submissionform.htm
Website: http://www.tampatrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Author: Mitch Stacy, The Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?246 (Policing - United States - News)

POLICE GIVE TIPSTERS THUMBS UP TO TEXT

TAMPA - Police in the 1970s urged citizens to "drop a dime" in a pay 
phone to report crimes anonymously. Now, in an increasing number of 
cities, tipsters are being invited to use their thumbs - to identify 
criminals using text messages.

Police hope the idea helps recruit teens and 20-somethings who 
wouldn't normally dial a Crime Stoppers hot line to share information 
with authorities.

"If somebody hears Johnny is going to bring a gun to school, 
hopefully they'll text that in," said Sgt. Brian Bernardi of the 
Louisville, Ky., Metro Police Department, which rolled out its 
text-message tip line in June.

Departments in Boston and Cincinnati started accepting anonymous text 
tips about a year ago. Since then, more than 100 communities have 
taken similar steps or plan to do so. The Internet-based systems 
route messages through a server that encrypts cell phone numbers 
before they get to police, making tips virtually impossible to track.

In Louisville, Bernardi's computer displayed a text message from a 
person identified only as "Tip563." It read: "someone has vandalized 
the school van at valor school on bardstown rd in fern creek." The 
note also reported illegal dumping in a trash container and in the woods.

"It's obvious that the future of communication is texting," said 
officer Michael Charbonnier, commander of the Boston Police 
Department's Crime Stoppers unit. "You look at these kids today and 
that's all they're doing. You see five kids standing on the corner, 
and they're texting instead of having a conversation with each other."

When Boston adopted the system last year, the first text tip yielded 
an arrest in a New Hampshire slaying. In the 12 months that ended 
June 15, Boston police logged 678 text tips, nearly matching the 727 
phone tips during the same period.

Earlier this year, a text tip led to the arrest of a suspect in a drug case.

"We've gotten some great drug information, specific times, dates, 
names of suspects, locations, pickup times, license plate numbers," 
Charbonnier said. In another instance, a hearing-impaired man who 
could not call 911 used a text message to report a domestic violence incident.

Since the beginning of the year, cities such as Tampa, San Francisco, 
Seattle, Denver, Indianapolis, New Orleans and Detroit have started 
their own text-based tip systems, according to Texas-based Anderson 
Software, a leading provider of the technology. Many cities are 
adding the text messages to a system that already accepted anonymous 
tips through a Web site.

Lisa Haber, a sheriff's detective who heads the Tampa-area Crime 
Stoppers unit, recently spent an hour exchanging 21 text messages 
with a tipster about a possible stolen car. It didn't yield an 
arrest, but Haber said it allowed her to glimpse the potential of 
being able to communicate in real time with texters. A marketing 
blitz will help get the word out when students return to school later 
this summer.

"It's got a lot of potential," said Cincinnati police Lt. David Fink, 
whose agency has collected about five text tips a month since 
adopting the system in May 2007. "Just like when we started Crime 
Stoppers 27 years ago, it took some time for it to catch on."

Sarah Coss, 18, an incoming freshman at the University of Tampa, 
typically logs about 6,000 text messages a month chatting to her 
friends. She thinks people who use text messaging every day will be 
more likely to report crimes that way, and the impersonal nature of 
text messaging will give more people her age the confidence to share 
information with authorities.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom