GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — Greensboro-Guilford County Crime Stoppers is recording an increase in anonymous tips, following the organization's decision to raise its tip reward from $2000 to $5000.
According to Greensboro officials, Greensboro-Guilford County Crime Stoppers recorded nine tips during September and October 2020. In September and October 2021, the organization recorded 25 tips which is an about 31% increase.
"I certainly think that the increase in reward (money) is certainly helping people to want to (submit tips)," said Marikay Abuzuaitar, a Greensboro City Council member and Greensboro-Guilford County Crime Stoppers Board member.
Crime Stoppers was founded in 1981 and in its 40 years of existence, it has had roughly 40,000 tips and more than 9,000 cases have been solved. However, the reward money had never been raised. In September 2021, the city of Greensboro gave the organization a $150,000 grant to be allocated over two years in $75,000 increments.
Greensboro leaders also said more awareness is helping to bring in more tips.
We have done a great campaign recently about how Crime Stoppers is truly anonymous and we’ve got information out there with what the process is," said Abuzuaitar.
Abuzuaitar also said Crime Stoppers is not just for homicide cases, but for all crimes.
"Anything that people would like to report, they certainly want to get tips because those would be preventative measures to stop the increase in crime we’ve seen recently," said Abuzuaitar. "The more tips we get in, the more crimes can be solved and the more crimes can be prevented."
The program offers three ways for residents to provide anonymous tips to law enforcement without the fear of retaliation. All three ways are 100 percent anonymous.
- Call 336-373-1000
- Visit www.ggcrimestoppers.com to leave an online tip, or visit www.P3tips.com
- Download the free mobile app: P3 Tips to submit a tip through the app.