Today the Rochester Police Department, the Olmsted County Sheriff and Crime Stoppers of Minnesota held a joint press conference to jointly kick off the Crime Stoppers of Rochester and Olmsted County website. Crime Stoppers of Minnesota is partnering with the crime fighting efforts of these two agencies who have long worked closely to combat and solve crime through cooperation, community visibility, and relationships with the local media.
For their part the agencies are working with the community and local media to publicize the need for information to solve crimes through this site. They are doing this by posting particular cases and fugitives on the newly created website (www.rochesterolmstedcrimestoppers.org) which is separate from that of the departments. Crime Stoppers of Minnesota is providing the infrastructure for the collection of tip information. That infrastructure incorporates links from the website to the Submit a Tip form on the Crime Stoppers of Minnesota website, use of the toll free phone number of 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) which is answered by the multilingual call center and access to SMS text messaging and a Submit a Tip APP for smartphones.
At the press conference Robert Dennistoun, Board Secretary of Crime Stoppers of Minnesota noted that “this is similar to the partnerships we have been seeing with an increasing number of agencies, but these departments have taken the effort to the highest of levels we have seen for involvement engaging the local community and raising the community’s awareness.”
Unique to this partnership is an automobile that has been emblazoned with Crime Stoppers logos, website, and phone number.(pictured) According to Crime Prevention Specialist Darrel Hildebrant, “this car is better than a billboard as it is mobile, it draws attention and it came at a better price than billboards.” The car was obtained through a confiscation, and is periodically parked where there is heightened crime activity or a specific crime scene.
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