KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Crimestoppers only wants the info, not your name. The organization has been taking anonymous tips from the public for 34 years, and now, there is hope that a new mobile app will make the metro safer.
“It’s amazing to see how quickly we get these tips,” Detective Kevin Boehm, coordinator for Kansas City Crimestoppers, said on Thursday.
Reporting felony crimes is no longer a matter of words alone. The brand new Crimestoppers mobile app will offer tipsters a new means of contacting police, and for uploading video clips, still photos and audio in addition to their anonymous tips.
“If you didn’t know the name of the app, you would have no idea,” Det. Boehm said, pointing out the innocuous appearance of the app’s onscreen shortcut.
Det. Boehm says his office gets 25 to 30 tips every day, but there are other victims who don’t get involved, fearful of being seen as “a snitch.”
“We provide them an anonymous way to report information,” Det. Boehm said.
Video and pictures from witnesses cell phones are often useful to police, and the new app will give them a quick means of sharing.
“If there’s valuable information in these tips, they will act on them almost immediately. We’ll hear back from a detective within 10 minutes on some cases,” Det. Boehm said.
If the info leads to arrests, tipsters are still eligible for a cash reward.
“Everything is anonymous. That’s the key. We want to make sure they understand,” Det. Boehm said.
Det. Boehm says other cities who are already using the new mobile app have seen a 40-60 percent hike in felonies reported. He hopes to see the same happen here.
Tipsters can still contact Kansas City Crimestoppers on the phone at (816) 474-TIPS, as well as its website www.kccrimestoppers.com.
The new mobile app will be activated on Sunday, January 1st, 2017. It can be found on the Apple App Store and Google Play, as well as the website www.p3tips.com.
