Washington County
launches anonymous
crime tip line
Reported by:
Walt McClure Fox
News
Washington County
law enforcement gets
a new tool to help
fight crime, and it
involves you, your
eyes and ears, and
your telephone.
It
may be a relatively
quiet place but
crime does happen in
Washington County,
and now law
enforcement has a
new tool to help
fight it.
It's
called WeTip -- a
tip line that
accepts anonymous
information about
crimes and then
passes it onto law
enforcement -- and
police agencies in
Washington County
are the first in New
York to make use of
it.
Susan
Aguilar/WeTip CEO:
“It's a safe and
secure way for
people to get
involved, to take
action, to be an
active part of the
safety in their
communities.”
Here's how it works.
A
person calls into
WeTip's toll free
number, answered by
an operator who
tells them not to
say their name or ID
themselves in any
way.
The
operator then asks
several dozen
questions about the
crime and passes the
information on to
the law enforcement
agency that would
investigate it.
WeTip
works where people
want it to work, and
so when people want
to get involved and
they want to give
information but they
don't want to
testify in court,
they don't want the
police coming to
their day, they
don't want to be
taped or traced or
Caller ID'd. WeTip
doesn't do any of
that.”
Chief
George
Bell/Cambridge-Greenwich
Police Department:
“They can call in.
They can be anybody
just calls in and
remains anonymous
and hopefully that
will make, spur some
activity.”
The
case law enforcement
hopes will benefit
most from the tip
line - the
Jaliek
Rainwalker
disappearance -
under investigation
for more than a year
and a half with no
answers.
Chief
George Bell: “Just
one call from
somebody will help
us bring some
closure to this
case, find Jaliek,
and bring the person
responsible for this
to justice.}
WeTip
can also used to
take information
about bullying in
schools or
harassment and other
issues for
businesses.
The
company, which is a
non-profit
organization, says
the program is
already being used
by schools on Long
Island and in New
Jersey.
It is
on-line now, and
will cost 6 cents
per person in
Washington County,
or about $3750 a
year, paid for with
drug forfeiture
money.
To
call in a tip, call
1-800-78-crime or
post a tip online at
www.wetip.com
You
can get additional
information about
all of WeTip’s
programs there as
well.
Official Press Release
