WWAY Investigation: WPD asks community to text tips to help solve crimes

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) —  Snitches get stitches. That’s how the code of the streets often works.

Wilmington Police say a lot of times their investigations are stymied because people who know what happened refuse to come forward with information because they are afraid of the consequences. City and county leaders, though, have been urging residents break this trend for years.

“What people who are not snitching are really doing is picking the guy on the corner terrorizing their own neighbor over his own grandmother, ” said New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David at a news conference in 2013.

Some think the only way to tip law enforcement off or point them in the right direction is to call 911. Although that is an option, and you are anonymous if you request it, there is another way to report crime. The Wilmington Police Department uses Text-A-Tip to harvest information from the community.

“This just allows them to tell us what’s going on with out any retribution,” WPD spokeswoman Cathryn Lindsay said.

Text-A-Tip is one tool police hope could make our community a safer place.

So how does it all work and are you really an anonymous tipster?

“It is. It is 100 percent anonymous,” Lindsay said.

If you have information that does not require immediate attention from police, text TIP 708 and your message to CRIMES which is 274637. Once you send the message, police say it goes to Canada to a company called Tipsoft, then to their department.

“When it goes to Canada, it gets unscrambled, that’s when it comes here,” WPD Cpl. Leslie Irving said.

Police say they never know what number you are using, because when they get the tip your number is replaced with an alternate ID, a code number about four digits long, keeping you anonymous while police can ask for more information.

“They don’t understand how it could be anonymous, especially when we start communicating with them. I’ve had tipsters say, ‘How do you have my number?’ I have to explain ‘We don’t know your number. I just have a short case number that doesn’t have anything to do with your number,” Lindsay said.

Investigators say when the tipster feels they can not provide any more details to officers or simply feels uncomfortable communicating, police say all they have to do is text back STOP to CRIMES.

Officers say that because the records of these messages are in Canada, they can not be subpoenaed in court.

WPD has been using this program for five years.From January 1, 2013, to January 1, 2014, a total of 647 tips came in from Text-A-Tip. From January 1, 2014, to January 1, 2015, there were 664 messages. So far this year police have gotten 231.

Although they say it is difficult to tell if tips generated from this program were the break in the case they needed, they say offering this medium to the community is well worth it.

“This really pulls the community in and lets them help us to make their community safer by letting us know who is bad out there and who do we need to be looking for. Maybe they are not on our radar now, but they should be,” Lindsay said.

The program costs WPD about $40 a month, which comes from money seized from criminals.

If you are not a texter and are more savvy with the computer you can log onto Tip708.com. On the site you can add a photo with your tip if you think it would also help investigators. That’s something not possible through texting a tip.

Again, this service is for providing tips to officers. If you need law enforcement’s immediate attention call 911.