(JESSICA WALLACE / iNFOnews.ca)
July 18, 2013 - 11:00 AM
KAMLOOPS – Nearly 30 years in Kamloops and Crime Stoppers continues to provide an important link between the public and the police.
More than 17,000 tips have been received by the Kamloops component since 1984 and in 2012 the number of tips grew by nearly 74 per cent over the previous year to 716 tips across the region. The increase in tips is partially attributed to the number of people using their computers to send in anonymous tips.
“It's my understanding (that) just under 20 per cent of the city's annual budget is devoted to policing activities,” president Lee Dodds said in a presentation to council, “The information (that's) provided by Crime Stoppers... results in a substantial savings in manpower and resources.”
The Kamloops office is located right in the RCMP detachment and allows tips to be immediately passed on to officers in charge of the investigation. This has resulted in more than 1,500 arrests, $9.5 million in recovered property and nearly $60 million worth of narcotics being seized over the 29 years.
The top two concerns for Kamloops at the moment are the drug trade and property crime, specifically theft from vehicles and break and enters. The local Crime Stoppers office plans to focus on theft from vehicles and graffiti in 2013 through community interaction and awareness programs.
Program coordinator Mark Price told council this week one of his personal pet peeves is graffiti and he is anxious to do more with the Graffiti Task Force to help crackdown on the “graffiti culture.”
“It drives me crazy,” he said Tuesday, “(and the) graffiti culture is tough to crack.”
Next year is the 30th anniversary of the Kamloops program and the 2014 annual training conference is set to be held in the city.
To contact a reporter for this story, email jstahn@infotelnews.ca, call (250)819-3723 or tweet @JennStahn.
News from © iNFOnews, 2013