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.
