A (501) C 3 Non-Profit Organization
Tri-County
Crime Stoppers
of Minnesota, Inc.
Serving Central Minnesota
P.O. Box 545 St. Cloud, MN 56302-0545
St. Cloud Area: 255-1301
Outside St. Cloud: 1-800-255-1301
About Crime Stoppers
How To Report / How To Collect
New August 9,
2006 -- Online tip reporting
Tri-County Crime Stoppers has added online tip
reporting to it’s arsenal of tools for use by citizens to anonymously
submit tips on unsolved crimes in the tri-counties of Benton, Stearns and
Sherburne.
On Wednesday, August 9, 2006, Tri-County Crime Stoppers entered into an
agreement with “TipSoft” to provide secure, online reporting capabilities.
This program is integrated with our already successful web site, local and
toll free phone numbers. TipSoft is the leading online reporting software
used by crime stopper programs worldwide.
The general public has two options for submitting a tip through the
TipSoft secure server.
The general public has two options for submitting a tip through the TipSoft secure server.
1. Users can access it directly from their internet browser at https://www.tipsubmit.com . This method does require the user to drill down several pages searching for Tri-County Crime Stoppers, and then requesting the secure reporting form.
2.
Another (better)
method is for the user to link directly to the TipSoft program from one of
the icons located on the Tri-County Crime Stoppers web site. This link
will call a reporting form directly from the TipSoft secure server,
bypassing the drill down process.
When a tip is submitted, an encrypted message is sent to Tri-County Crime Stoppers, where it is then disseminated, in the same way that we handle phone tips, to one of the 33 law enforcement agencies serving in Stearns, Benton or Sherburne County.
Each person submitting a tip will receive these special instructions and a code number for them to use in tracking the status of their tip.
"Thank you for submitting your tip with us online. Please call between 8:30am and 4:00pm on weekdays to check the status of your tip or any time to provide additional information. Be sure and keep up with your assigned ID#. Please call 911 if this is an emergency!"
Crime Stoppers offers a standard reward of up to $1,000. As of October 10, 2003, Crime Stoppers has paid out $34,090 in rewards.
Crime Stoppers is based on the principal that "someone other than the criminal has information that can solve a crime" and was created to combat the three major problems faced by law enforcement in generating that information:
- Fear of REPRISAL
- An attitude of APATHY
- Reluctance to get INVOLVED
Crime Stoppers resolves these problems by:
- Offering ANONYMITY to people who provide information about crimes
- Paying REWARDS when the information supplied leads to arrest
Please, take the courage to make this call!
How to Report Crime Information
We do not accept e-mail tips through this site. You must call
the Crime Stoppers number, listed above. This is in order to protect your
anonymity.
The Crime Stoppers phone number is answered personally 24 hours per day.
There is no recorder or caller ID on the phone
line, so your call will remain completely anonymous.
Callers to Crime Stoppers are given a unique case number. Crime information is forwarded to the appropriate law enforcement agency. The callers' tip information must lead to arrest and formal charging. Caller can check on the status of the case by calling back, using the case number.
How to Collect Your Reward
After formal charging, law enforcement refers the case to the Crime Stoppers Board with a request for payment of a reward. The Crime Stoppers Board applies case information to the reward formula.
The caller must contact us, using their assigned code, to learn if a reward has been authorized. The caller then designates the method of cash payment. It could be a bank drop, clergy payment, etc. Because of the cash involved, we do not use the US Mail.
Special Reward Offers
Rewards of up to $5,000 are being offered for information on the seven unsolved murders in the tri-county area.
We are a non-profit agency solely dependent upon donations for our funding. Learn more about how you can help us!