GREENSBORO, N.C. — Greensboro/Guilford Crime Stoppers is no longer taking your crime reporting tips via text. The agency just introduced an encrypted free Mobile App. Greensboro/Guiford County Crime Stoppers, Inc. posted about the new app on its Facebook page early Monday.
Tipsters can send criminal information and engage in an anonymous, two-way dialog with Crime Stoppers from their smartphone or tablet using the P3 Tips mobile app.
"P3-Tips is modern, it's efficient, it's just easier to use for both Crime Stoppers as well as the public, so we just want to bring people the easiest ways to report a crime," said Stacey Fitch, Crimes Stoppers co-ordinator for Greensboro and Guilford County.
Users can also anonymously upload photos, screenshots, videos and audio files along with their tips via the app.
The change was prompted after several technical glitches with the Text-a-Tip program, as well as concern about how anonymous texting crime stoppers really was.
"People were worried that our text option wasn't anonymous but the software we were using stripped their phone numbers from the tip and all we could see was the code number, so that was 100% anonymous and was safe," added Fitch.
The agency is hoping that users feel their identity won't be known with the app's encryption feature.