MHA Public Safety Division of Drug Enforcement
drivi86 Agency Spotlight

“We have a 1-800 phone line, we tell people they can call and be anonymous, but they don’t trust it like they do tip411”

tip411 interviewed Britnee White of Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara (MHA) Nation Drug Enforcement in North Dakota.

Q: How has the tip411 system aided your agency?
A: If it wasn’t for tip411, many of the tips we’ve received would not have come to us. People on the reservation not want to be a narc, but they do want to be able to get information to the right people in law enforcement. We have a 1-800 phone line, we tell people they can call and be anonymous, but they don’t trust it like they do tip411.We can communicate with tipsters via text and through custom branded apps made just for our community.

Q: Any advice for other agencies considering tip411?
A: I would strongly suggest other agencies look into getting this for their department, their reservation, whatever. From our standpoint it’s opened our eyes to the power of technology in community engagement. People are more likely to send in a text than walk in or call us with information. Because of that it’s made us more successful in being able to get one more piece of the puzzle that helps us finish a case.  I’m proud of our tip411 program and that they noticed us and the work we’re doing with it at MHA Nation.

Q: Tell us about your community and your agency (how many residents, how many sworn, etc.).
A: Our agency is fairly new and the first of its kind. We’re tribally funded, and there are 6 communities on the reservation of approximately 1,000 acres under our jurisdiction. We started MHA Drug Enforcement started in 2015, and have a mixture of patrol agents with K-9s that do interdiction on the reservation and our special agents that do case management. We have about 16,000 enrolled members on our reservation but have a lot of non-natives that live on the reservation as well. A total of 6 counties intersect with the reservation.

Q: How did you hear about tip411?
A: tip411 was purchased for us a few years ago through a grant from Dr. Monica Mayer, our North Segment Representative, and, since we were a fairly new agency focused specifically on drugs, it was decided our agency would be the best fit to utilize the program.

Q: How is tip411 administered in your department (responsibilities, protocols, etc.)?
A: As the office manager/IT person/support person, I am the main administrator of tip411 who handles tips that come in. One of my responsibilities is to transfer tips within the agency to the best agent to follow up on it. When tips come in they are received by the supervisors and directors so they can interact with them as well. If I know there’s a current case, something a tip is related to, I’ll assign it to the specific agent working on that case. If a tip comes it at 1am on a Saturday, I’m monitoring it. We actually had a tip that came in at 3am and when the tip came in I got a text alert that the tipster was sending information and pictures through tip411. This was real-time information that was coming in about drugs being transported through the reservation.I transferred it to one of our agents and they were able to go out and make a successful arrest on a warrant that was issued for the driver of the vehicle.

Q: Any notable tips/arrests credited to tip411 that come to mind?
A: With tip411, we’ve had tips come in that have contributed to several indictments. In one case we had 20 tips that came in about one person that contributed to their indictment as well.

Q: What have you done to brand and promote the tip411 system in your community to make your residents aware of it?
A: I try to reinforce the anonymity of tip411 on all of our advertisements for it.We have an information screen that’s seen throughout the reservation and we put the tip411 information on there, we put flyers out to everyone through our email lists, ask people to post it in their community centers, we have it on our Facebook page, it’s on the MHA Nation website, we’ve made business cards, and we’ve been sharing this information at community meetings. We also go out and do educational presentations for schools, staff, our public safety services, and when we do that I ask people, “does everyone have a cell phone?” and then I tell them to pull it out and I walk them through downloading the app and how to use it. Once I do that, we always see a spike in the number of tips we receive.

Q: Have you noticed an increase in the number of tips your agency is receiving and cases you are solving since implementing tip411?
A: Our community members are using it as a vehicle to be heard – it’s not always just drug tips – we’ve gotten tips about child protective situations, tips about people having warrants, etc. With the upgrade of being able to pass on information to another department I’ve started utilizing it to pass tips along to the appropriate agencies outside of MHA Nation to follow up on. They really appreciate it because they know the information they’re getting from us is good and actionable as we’ve always been a reliable partner to our neighboring agencies.

Q: What types of tips/situations have you seen tip411 be most useful for in your community?
A: When we first started, we were seeing issues related to meth, but the goal has been to try to eradicate any drug dealings that are being done on the reservation. What we’re finding now is a wide range of pill use, opioids, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, and meth again. Recently its gotten much more serious – we’ve had 4 fatal overdoses in the last month related to fentanyl as well as 2 overdoses that were able to be brought back to consciousness.

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drivi86 Agency Spotlight

“There is no better time than right now to gain the trust and respect from your community.”

UPDATE: August 12, 2019

Crime Prevention Officer Caitlin Horne shared the following with us as ongoing proof of the success of Bismarck PD’s tip411 system:

“Below are two cases where tip411 played a HUGE ROLE as it appears more and more people are turning away from using our Facebook page as a place to say who the suspect(s) are as their names would be attached to it and they cannot stay anonymous on Facebook. I know we have many more success stories, but these are two where we got many tips in a fast timeframe and were able to solve the cases quickly.”

  • KT Animal Supply called to report two individuals, a male and female, came into their store and stole two rabbits. The investigating officer was able to obtain video footage of the theft and the video was placed on our Facebook page. Within an hour of the video being uploaded, I started receiving tips on tip411 about both suspects. After the 9thtip, the officer was able to positively ID both suspects and they were both questioned and ultimately admitted to stealing the rabbits. The rabbits were safely returned to KT Animal Supply and the suspects were both trespassed from KT indefinitely.
  • Ulta Beauty contacted Police after a female had left the store with over $400 worth of merchandise without paying for it. The investigating officer was able to get two still frame shots of the female and a male accomplice that was the getaway driver. The pictures were uploaded onto our Facebook page and Tips immediately started coming in on Tip411. The investigating officer was able to positively ID both suspects and formal complaints were issued through City Court. The investigating Officer applauded Tip411 for being the sole reason for the identification of these two suspects.

tip411 interviewed Officer Caitlin Horne of the Bismarck, North Dakota Police Department.

Q: Tell us about your community and the Bismarck Police Department (how many residents, how many sworn, etc.).
A: Bismarck’s population is over 72,000 people and, in 2017, Forbes Magazine ranked Bismarck as the 7thfastest-growing small city in the United States. The Bismarck Police Department currently has 129 sworn officers and continues to hire more when budget allows.Our Department is a full service agency that handles anything from an animal call to a homicide or aggravated assault.

Bismarck is constantly growing and expanding, and we have seen an influx of individuals coming to our area for employment opportunities. With that said, we have also seen an uptick in illegal activity which makes tip411 a great program to have in our department.

Q: How did you hear about tip411?
A: tip411 staff came to the Bismarck Police Department a couple of years ago and did a demonstration of what they could bring to our agency. There was a webinar put on and, after speaking to other agencies that have tip411, we decided it was ultimately the best program out there that would benefit not only our department but allow the community to be more involved with our every day activities.

Q: How is tip411 administered in your department (responsibilities, protocols, etc.)?
A: There are three ways a citizen can report a tip. One way is through the Bismarck PD app. The second is through our departments website, and the third way is that residents can access the program on our website.

As of now, I review the tips that come in during the daytime hours, Monday-Friday, and will distribute them to the investigator in charge of the case they relate to. All supervisors and patrol commanders have access to the program after hours and are able to see all the tips that come in.

With the program being so new to our community (we just recently launched in January 2019), we are still receiving many of what we consider “in progress” calls on tip411. With Patrol Commanders having access to this program during the night hours, they are able to constantly check the status of any tip and determine if it is a call they need to respond to during their working shift or if it is something that can wait until the day time hours.

Q: How has the tip411 system aided your department?
A: Just in the last two months, we believe tip411 has become a critical and essential tool to this Police Department. We take many reports from our citizens where they ask to remain anonymous and they have been deterred in the past from calling us because they don’t want to be involved in the report. tip411 gives our citizens the opportunity to report activity to us anonymously and help our department crack down on crime.

Q: Any notable tips/arrests credited to tip411 that come to mind?
A: When we first launched tip411, we got multiple tips on the location and sightings of a juvenile runaway as well as numerous tips on the possible identities of suspects in a huge ring of felony cases.

Q: What have you done to promote your tip411 system to make sure residents know about it and use it?
A: One of our main goals is to have a positive interaction with our community. We are fortunate to have so many citizens in the Bismarck area support our department and have close to 27,000 people following our Facebook page.

Our Crime Analysist works very hard to keep our Facebook page updated throughout the year. She tries to keep the citizens up to date on current cases we are trying to solve and request that citizens help with identifying the suspects.

Before tip411, most of our tips came from our Facebook page. We would ask the community to help identify a suspect(s) and we would get a great number of people willing to help. The biggest problem we saw was our citizens were wanting to help us and give us information but they did not want to be associated with the case and be looked at as a “nark” and, unfortunately with Facebook, as much as you make your profile private, there is always ways around it.

Now with tip411, our community is able to interact with us in another, completely anonymous, way and it’s much more beneficial for them as well as our agency. I believe the longer tip411 is in use by our agency, the stronger the trust of the community will become and our bond with the community will continue to grow.

We have links on our Facebook page and our website along with a billboard right by our Police Department which shows people how they can use the tip411 app to send us tips. Our local news stations have also done stories on tip411 and have helped us reach out to our community on how to properly use the system.

Q: Any advice for other departments considering tip411?
A: There is no better time than right now to gain the trust and respect from your community. tip411 gives you that opportunity to build trust with community members who might be on the fence about law enforcement in general. In my eyes, giving the community another way to reach out to law enforcement can only make a stronger bond between the two.

Atlantic City Police Public and Safety Office
drivi86 Agency Spotlight

“In our first full year of use, we received a little over 200 tips. In 2018, we received over 4,200.”

tip411 interviewed Sergeant Kevin Fair of the Atlantic City, New Jersey Police Department. Here’s what he had to say about tip411 at ACPD:

Q: Tell us about your community and the Atlantic City Police Department (how many residents, how many sworn, etc.).
A:  Atlantic City has about 39,000 residents.  However, we receive around 24 million visitors a year.   

Q: How is tip411 administered in your department (responsibilities, protocols, etc.)?
A:  tip411 is monitored by personnel in our Communications Bureau and Surveillance Center on a 24/7 basis.  There are also select officers that receive tips as they come in.

Q: How has the tip411 system aided your department?
A:  tip411 has been a tremendous asset for us.  We advertise it to our residents at community events and to our local businesses.  In our first full year of use, we received a little over 200 tips. In 2018, we received over 4,200. 

Q: You get LOTS of tips, what have you done to promote your tip411 system to make sure residents know about it and use it?
A:  We have flyers available during community events.  We will always routinely use the mobile app while giving presentations.  We allow residents to see what we see, because some are skeptical that it’s anonymous. Also, at the end of every news release, the tip411 information is contained in the last paragraph. Information on tip411 will be provided at certain crime scenes. 

Q: Any notable tips/arrests credited to tip411 that come to mind?
A:  Arrests are frequently made off of tips that are received.  Many of the tips are for narcotic related activity.  The tips will aid in our detective’s investigations. 

Q: You always make great use of our alerting feature – what do you typically send alerts out about and approximately how many residents do you reach with them?
A:  We send alerts about weather events and general information from the police department that the public needs to know about. That would include; news releases, hirings/promotions, events, etc.

Q: The Atlantic City Police Department has used tip411 for many years, why is it so important for you to have anonymous tip capabilities?
A:  We police an environment where we need an anonymous service to aid us in our fight against crime.  We will get information from witnesses that we may not get otherwise.  This has allowed us to solve more than 75 percent of our non-fatal shooting investigations over the last several years. 

Q: The department is about to launch our new tip411 Select option – which allows your information to be translated into 40 languages – why is this so important to APD and the communities you serve?
A:  Atlantic City is a melting pot of different nationalities who speak a litany of languages.  Being able to interact with particular segments of the community that we would not have otherwise is definitely a great advantage.

Below is just one recent example of Atlantic City Police being aided by tip411 to solve a violent crime, then using their tip411 alert feature to share that success with the media and public.

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South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Tip411
drivi86 Agency Spotlight

Statewide Agencies Seeing the Benefits of tip411: An Interview with South Carolina DNR

tip411 interviewed Captain Lee Ellis of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources about his agency’s use of tip411.

Q: Tell us about your agency (how many sworn, how many areas/miles are under your jurisdiction, etc.) and the agency’s role in the state.
A:The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division currently has 262 sworn officers. SCDNR Law Enforcement has statewide enforcement authority with the primary responsibility of enforcement of the state’s criminal codes related to Hunting, Boating, Recreational and Commercial Fishing, Homeland Security, and Search & Rescue response.  SC DNR is responsible for patrolling 30,111 square miles of land, 460,000 acres of lakes, 8,000 miles of rivers, and 3,000 miles of coastal waters.

Q: How did you hear about tip411?
A:Upon taking over our “Operation Game Thief“ anti-poaching program, I determined that SCDNR needed to increase the avenues through which anonymous reporting of violations was possible. At the time we had a toll-free phone line as the only means of reporting violations. Through talking with other states and conducting some internet research, it was determined we wanted to be able to receive tips not only through our website, but with the huge usage of smartphones we felt an anonymous tip phone app would also need to be a requirement. After talking with several vendors it was determined that tip411 was a perfect fit for our needs.

Q: How is tip411 administered in your agency (responsibilities, protocols, etc.)?
A:All tips come into our 24 hour radio dispatch facility. Once a tip is received, the dispatcher corresponds with the tipster and, once the area where the violation is occurring is determined, an officer assigned to that area of responsibility is given the tip for follow-up. 

Q: How has the tip411 system aided your agency?
A:Through the use of tip411, which we named SCDNR Tips, we have received over 1,100 tips since going live in July of 2016. During this time, officers have not only received information regarding violations through the tip411 program, but they have received photographs and videos through the tip app as well. This not only aids in prosecution, but in many cases the violators have admitted to their actions once confronted with the photographic or video evidence.

Q: Any notable tips/arrests credited to tip411 that come to mind?
A:We have made numerous arrests from tips submitted through tip411 for violations such as night hunting, out of season hunting, hunting over bait, and taking over the limit. The fact that our officers have a direct line to contact the tip submitter without breaking the anonymous nature of the system allows for immediate updates while investigating tips. SCDNR has received numerous tips on crimes other than natural resource violations over the past 2 years, and we pass this information on to the appropriate agency or collaborate during the investigation to ensure they receive the information they need without compromising our tipsters’ personal information.

Q: What have you done to promote your tip411 system to make sure residents know about it and use it?
A:We have issued news releases on our program and have used media advertising to ensure the message gets out to residents across the state.

Q: Many of our customers are local police departments. Being a state agency, what advice would you give to other agencies like yours who may be considering tip411 or an anonymous tip solution?
A:At first, SCDNR began using these tip submission opportunities as a test to see if these venues were successful. As tip411 is a low cost subscription-based service, it allowed our agency to avoid purchasing software and the costs associated with maintaining expensive software programs. In just a short time it has proven it was a worthy investment, and we recently renewed our subscription for another 2 years.

Q: Anything else that’s important to note?
A:The service provided by tip411 has been great! Their technical help working with our IT department has allowed for SCDNR to go from a single toll-free phone tip line to submission venues using our agency website, agency Facebook page, agency smartphone app, and to link with private outdoor related apps to provide a direct link to our tip submission venues even when not using an SCDNR app.