Rockland County Anonymous Tip Program

Interview with Rockland County, NY about their use of tip411

tip411 interviewed Sergeant Earl Lorence of the Clarkstown, New York Police Department about his experience with tip411 at the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office.

Q: Tell us about your community and the work of the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office (how many residents, how many sworn, your role between PD and DA’s Office, etc.).
A:  
There are approximately 600 sworn law enforcement officers in Rockland County, NY.  There are approximately 325,000 residents in Rockland County. The RC DA and the 10 police departments and RC Sheriff’s Department work collaboratively to reduce, disrupt and prevent crime.

Q: How did you hear about tip411?
A:
Yonkers PD / Westchester, NY implemented it years ago and we have been aware of the platform since that time.  We were looking for a way to engage our citizens

Q: How is tip411 administered in your area (responsibilities, protocols, etc.)?
A:
As the tips come in, they are immediately disseminated to the agency representative that handles that jurisdiction.  They can then handle the tip the way that they see fit according to their agency guidelines.

Q: How has tip411 aided the DA’s Office?
A:
It has brought several different law enforcement agencies to work together for the common good of the community.

Q: Any notable tips/arrests credited to tip411 that come to mind?
A:
 The platform was responsible for information leading to an arrest of a resident who had weapons and a large amount of drugs. The tipster only felt comfortable reaching out anonymously via the app and continued communicating, which helped us build the case and arrest the suspect.

Q: What have you done to promote your tip411 system to make sure residents know about it and use it?
A:
We have been doing ‘free’ advertising on social media via each departments Facebook page and Twitter page.  In addition, we advertised in our local Sunday newspaper and digital advertising via their platform as well. 

Q: Any advice for other agencies considering tip411?
A:
Have ‘buy-in’ from the top down or else it may impede the progress of getting the message out to the public.

Syracuse Police

New Syracuse Police Phone App Informs About Nearby Crimes, Accepts Anonymous Tips

Can your smart phone make you safer in the City of Syracuse?  Mayor Ben Walsh joined members of the Syracuse Police Department to roll out new technology to help reduce crime and improve community relations. You might have a phone app to find your way around or get a ride, maybe check the weather or play a game. Deputy Chief Joe Cecile wants you to get another app for community benefit.

“Nothing makes it safer, nothing assists with quality of life (more) than collaboration and communication between the residents who live there and the police department.  And that’s what this TIP 411 is going to allow us to do.  We’re going to roll out an app that allows us to communicate and dialogue with the residents throughout the city with everything from crime down to public relations-type events.”

People can download the app on I-Phone or Android smart phones.  Mayor Walsh says it can add some eyes and ears to the police on patrol.

“You may notice a suspicious vehicle in your neighborhood; you may have a vacant house in your neighborhood and you notice some suspicious activity around there, and knowing that I can just pull out my phone.  I can submit a tip to the police department.  The functionality to include a photo is really useful.  So having the app on your phone makes it convenient.”

Tips sent through the app are anonymous.  Authorities say that makes it more useful than texting, where people fear consequences of giving police information.  Police can also use the app to send messages to people about crimes that are going on in their neighborhoods.

Read the full story at WAER.org

Cheektowaga Police Department

Text through Cheektowaga’s tip411 results in two drug arrests

Two people were arrested on multiple drug charges Wednesday night after police received an anonymous tip through the department’s tip411 texting service.

The anonymous text was sent to the department around 7 p.m. saying that a car was parked on Oakwood Drive in the town’s South Line district and several people were smoking drugs.

“Officers Chris Wierzbowski and Mike Menth responded and found two people in the car and then discovered a baggie with crack cocaine at the feet of the occupants.  Further investigation led to the discovery of multiple envelopes of heroin, a crack pipe, and several hypodermic needles,” said James Speyer, Assistant Chief of Police.

Police arrested and charged Jessica Seiler, 22 of Tristan Lane, Williamsville and Dillon Butchart, 25 of Pleasant Ave, Depew with three counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance and Possession of a Hypodermic Instrument.

Read the full story in the Cheektowaga Chronicle.

Onondaga County

Interview: Onondaga County, NY Sheriff’s Office

tip411 interviewed Captain Dan Brogan of the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department in Onondaga County, New York.

Q: Tell us about Onondaga County and your department (how many residents, how many sworn, etc.).
A:
Onondaga County is located in Central New York and includes the city of Syracuse. The county is 827 square miles, has a population of over 750,000 residents, and our department has just over 220 sworn members.

Q: How is tip411 administered in the Sheriff’s department (responsibilities, protocols, etc.)?
A:
Our previous tip lines ran through the Public Information Office. When we set up tip411, we made the decision to have several administrators on the system who are responsible for being a clearinghouse for tips that are received. When they come in to myself, the Public Information Office, our Fusion Center, etc., we distribute the tips according to topic and assign them to individuals to respond and have tip conversations directly with the tipster.

Q: How is the tip411 system used in your community?
A:
The majority of tips we receive, without question, are for drug activity. Most people want to report drug activity because no one wants a drug house next door to them, but they don’t have great success by calling 911 with this information because, usually, there’s very little patrol can do when they respond.

Because people can share this information electronically through tip411 and they know it’s anonymous, they have been providing more specific information than they leave on our tip line where they have to leave a voice message.

When email came out years ago we saw a huge uptick in the amount of tips that came in that way, but once people realized that we could trace their IP address to find out where the tip came from and that it was not truly anonymous, they became much more skeptical of contacting us that way.

With tip411, there’s not that traceability which is great for the tipster, yet we are able to create an ongoing anonymous conversation and ask questions to get that one more piece of information that makes a tip actionable and helps us affect arrest.

Q: What have you done to brand and promote the tip411 system in Onondaga County?
A:
We’ve had success because we’ve done promotion of the system. We have the information on our website and almost every single night on the news there’s something from the Sheriff’s department about a crime and how we’re trying to identify a suspect and tip411 is available to share information safely and anonymously.

It’s also been helpful to us that the Syracuse Police Department and Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office are both using and promoting tip411 as well because it has added to a wider knowledge about the system with residents in our county.

Q: Any notable tips/arrests credited to tip411 that come to mind?
A:
What’s notable is the every day success we’re having with the system that we hadn’t seen before. We’re getting more tips, closing more cases, and being able to continue anonymous tip conversations with reporting party rather than just getting a voicemail with a piece of information that isn’t enough to help us build a case off of.

We’ve had neighbors and community groups in meetings tell us they’re glad we’ve taken care of this problem or that drug location, and we wouldn’t have been able to do it with tip411.

Q: Have you noticed an increase in the number of tips your department is receiving and cases you are solving since implementing tip411?
A:
We’ve absolutely seen an increase. Previously we got about one to two tips per week on our traditional phone tip line and through other avenues. We’re still seeing that, but in addition we’re now receiving about a tip per day through tip411.

Since launching our tip411 system in December of 2015, we’ve received approximately 225 tips. That’s 225 more tips than we would’ve gotten without tip411.

Of those 225 tips, we’ve opened 70 cases and closed nearly 80% of those through arrests.

I spent 14 years as Supervisor of the Narcotics Unit, and during that time we closed between 55% and 60% of cases based on tips that came in. The ones we didn’t make arrests on were because we couldn’t verify because there wasn’t enough information. With tip411, now we can go back and ask that one or two extra questions to make it more successful. For example, a tip about a blue car isn’t that helpful, but if we can follow up and get the tipster to share the license plate for the blue car, that really helps quite a bit and that’s why we’ve seen our arrest rate grow significantly with tip411.

Q: So, why tip411?
A: We got tip411 in December 2015 through a partnership with the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office and it’s been very successful for us. As I’ve said, it’s not just a substitute for other ways we have for people to submit tips, it’s an additional, anonymous avenue for people to reach us with important information that’s helping us get more information and close more cases.

Q: Anything you would tell other agencies considering tip411?
A: It’s a success. It’s had a proven track record of success with us for anonymous tips for narcotics because it allows you to communicate anonymously with the tipster and lets a lot more people come forward with more information.

People want to come forward, but they’re petrified. tip411 has helped remove that fear and has been a really a fantastic addition to our arsenal.

Jamestown police badge

Jamestown Police Department tip411 App and Program

The Jamestown Police Department is increasing its crime-fighting arsenal with a new app to help residents connect with the department to find information, view alerts, and submit anonymous tips from their smartphone.

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Developed by tip411, the Jamestown PD app puts an additional tool into the hands of community members. The Jamestown PD app is available for free via the Google Play Store, iTunes, or by visiting the Jamestown Police Department Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/jamestownpolicedepartment/.

Jamestown residents without a smartphone will still be able to send an anonymous text tip via their cell phone to police by texting keyword JPDTIP and their message to 847411 (tip411). Anonymous web tips can also be submitted through the department’s Facebook page by clicking on the Report a Tip link. Links for the app are also located on the page.

The Jamestown PD app and tip411 text a tip system are 100% anonymous, as the technology removes all identifying information before police see the tips. Community members may also sign up for alerts by visiting the tip411 website at https://tip411site.wordpress.com/sign-up-for-alerts/ .