When it comes to preventing crime and stopping criminals, the police can’t do it all themselves.
All of us have a role to play as the eyes and ears of the community.
We’re not encouraging vigilante justice. But a worthy program such as South Okanagan Similkameen Crime Stoppers deserves our strongest support, as well as the active participation of people willing to share information about criminal activity.
Crime Stoppers acts as an anonymous way that people can provide information about crime to the police.
The organization is not part of the police and it uses all kinds of technology to hide the identity of informants – whether they call by phone, visit through a website, send information by email or use text messaging.
Neither the police nor Crime Stoppers wants the identity of the informant. Rather, they want the information, which they then try to corroborate with their own investigation.
There are reasons why many people prefer to provide information anonymously.
One of the main reasons is that by going directly to the police, it is sometimes necessary to appear in court as a witness.
Our court system is an open process, meaning that except in special circumstances, for example where a juvenile might be identified, the names of witnesses become public information.
Many people worry, sometimes with justification, that our system doesn’t do enough to protect witnesses.
It would be easier to convict criminals if citizens weren’t afraid to testify in court, but the fears of being a witness are real, and many people choose instead to stay silent, even when they have information about serious crimes.
By offering a safe avenue for people to provide information anonymously to police, Crime Stoppers gives us a way to break that silence.
Police cannot act in the absence of information. And police cannot be everywhere to see everything. They rely on all of us to speak up when we know of criminal or suspicious activity.
Sometimes people stay silent because they assume police already know the information or they assume that the information is unimportant.
Both these assumptions are often wrong. It is better to provide the information and leave it to police to determine whether or not it is relevant.
Crime affects us all, whether directly or indirectly.
There are no victimless crimes.
We have only to look at places such as northern Mexico to see the social consequences when organized drug smuggling gets out of control.
In January, South Okanagan Similkameen Crime Stoppers will be celebrating its 20th anniversary, even though they’ve actually been helping to fight crime here for 21 years.
This is a good time to recognize a worthy program and to support them in what they do.
There is no doubt the regional Crime Stoppers program has made the lives of regular citizens safer over the past 20 years.
We applaud them for a job well done and hope the program will continue to thrive and hopefully expand in the coming years.
When your anonymity is guaranteed, there’s really no reason not to pick up the phone and call police when you have information that can lead to an arrest and conviction of a bad guy.