THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510050197
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Suppose you witness a crime and can identify the perpetrator.
Instinctively, your hand reaches for the phone.
But before you dial police, you think better of it. ``Better not get involved,'' you decide. After all, wouldn't you have to give your name, maybe even go to court?
You take your hand off the receiver.
But you're angry that a handful of criminals continues to compromise safety for the vast majority of law-abiding citizens and want to do something to help.
So what can you do?
The Virginia Beach Police have a ready answer.
Call Crime Solvers at 427-0000. You won't have to give your name, and you'll never have to show up in court.
And, you could be rewarded with as much as $1,000.
Since its inception in 1982, tips phoned in to Virginia Beach's three full-time Crime Solvers detectives have helped police crack thousands of cases, including 32 homicides, 76 rapes and sexual assaults, and 297 armed robberies. More than $3 million worth of stolen property has been recovered, and nearly $8 million worth of illegal drugs have been confiscated. A total of $367,535 has been passed out to citizens as reward for their tips.
Crime Solvers is the local arm of Crime Stoppers International with 1,000 member communities worldwide.
Virginia Beach, with its official status as the safest city of its population size in the world, was the site last week of Crime Stoppers' annual weeklong conference, attended by 550 delegates. They hailed from nearly every state and Canadian province as well as Australia and England.
High points of the convention were a speech by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and the announcement of a nationwide initiative aimed at stopping crimes against the elderly.
Topics of the four-day training seminars, which preceded Reno's Saturday speech, included terrorism, child abuse and how community partnerships can help.
Though the names under which they operate vary, Crime Stoppers community groups around the world have one thing in common - they offer money for tips.
In Virginia Beach, a 30-member volunteer board of directors meets monthly with the city's three Crime Solvers detectives to decide how much each tipster should receive in reward money. Amounts paid depend on the seriousness of the crime solved as well as the value of the tip, says Bill Myers, who chairs the board.
It's a satisfying experience, he says. ``We can see the good we're doing, and the bad guys are in jail.''
Recently, as more citizens have apparently become disgruntled about crime rates and have learned about the work Crime Solvers is doing, calls coming in to the tipline have increased. One informant has called the tipline a total of 32 times to help get ``drugs off the street,'' Myers says.
Some residents apparently have become so committed to stamping out crime that even siblings and spouses are turning each other in, says Myers.
Though high-profile cases solved as a result of tips are the ones that stand out, 85 percent of the anonymous calls to the hotline are drug related, says Myers.
One high-profile case that could be solved with the right information is last month's arson at Princess Anne High School. In recent weeks, several calls have come in, but, so far, they've ``not been the right call,'' says Myers.
Princess Anne is one of two city high schools already participating in Crime Solvers in the Schools, a new program that is expected to be adopted by all other city high schools by January, according to Myers. Salem High School also is part of the program.
The school program will, it is hoped, help stem the rising tide of youth crime. Students are eligible for rewards of up to $100.
The nationwide increase in crimes by and against youth was a focus of Reno's speech Saturday to Crime Stoppers International members.
Reno urged increased spending to bolster established programs and to launch new efforts designed to steer kids away from crime before they get involved in it.
While noting the strong link between drugs and violent crime, Reno also honed in on domestic violence, particularly against women, and drew parallels between the violence in schools and on the streets of America to what goes on in many of its homes.
The nation's top cop praised public participation in Crime Stoppers, noting that the effort has resulted in the conviction of 97 percent of the 90,000 people charged as a result of anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers.
Also on Saturday, the Crime Stoppers announced a new nationwide initiative that targets a different age group.
``Senior Crimestoppers'' will focus on crimes against the elderly in nursing homes and will utilize the organization's proven method of rewarding tipsters with cash. by CNB