Caddo-Shreveport Crime Stoppers is a community-supported non-profit designed to assist in the safety and security of local families and businesses, helping to maintain a safe environment that contributes to the quality of life. Only when members of the community work together can we keep our homes, families and businesses safe. It is all of our responsibilities to work toward these goals.
In 1982, the Shreveport Police Department started the first Crime Stoppers program in the area and beginning in 2006 Caddo-Shreveport Crime Stoppers accepted the responsibility for assisting all law enforcement agencies within Caddo Parish.
Crime Stoppers programs are started by concerned citizens who want to help their communities fight the war on crime. Each program is independent and operates under its own bylaws and Board of Directors. Board members come from all segments of the community and donate their time and talents for one common goal – to make the program a success by reducing crime in their world.
Essential Elements
THE COMMUNITY: Citizens are responsible for forming a Crime Stoppers non-profit corporation, whose directors establish police contacts, determine the amount and method for reward payments, coordinate activities with law enforcement and the media, and generally oversee the program. The directors are also responsible for fund raising and all volunteer service. Tax money is not used in the operation of the program.
THE MEDIA: Crime Stoppers methods, objectives, successes, and phone number are publicized on a regular basis by the media. An unsolved “Crime of the Week” is given special treatment with details published in newspapers, on the radio, and in certain cases, a re-enactment on television.
LAW ENFORCEMENT: A special Crime Stoppers hot line for anonymous tips is manned by the program coordinator. Tips are then worked by law enforcement and if the information leads to an arrest, the caller will be paid up to $1,000.00 for their information.
How it started
Crime Stoppers was the brainchild of a young Albuquerque detective who was concerned by the number of unsolved cases he and fellow detectives were working, and was particularly frustrated that he had exhausted all possible leads on the murder of a young college student. He felt information that would solve the crime was available from someone other than the criminal. That principal led to the major factors that needed to be addressed so individuals would come forward.
FEAR: Some people feared the court system. Others were frightened of retaliation from the criminals they would be giving information against. Offering anonymity to people who provide information about crimes was the key to solving this problem.
APATHY: Some did not want to get caught up in the judicial system; others did not want to testify in court. There was a reluctance to get involved. This detective recognized that many of people he was trying to get information from were not going to provide the facts unless there was something in it for them. The answer was paying a reward for information that led to an arrest. Accepting the fact that a tight budget would not allow much money to establish a reward fund, the detective set out to ask local business leaders to raise the funds.
The next hurdle to cross was publicity. Help was enlisted from the local media to publicize the first “Crime of the Week” and the phone number to call with information. With a lot of hard work, the first Crime Stoppers program was born on September 8, 1976. The first call received by the program resulted in the arrest of three men, within 72 hours, who had been involved in the homicide of the student that had occurred 4 months earlier. Since this first case, more than 1000 community and scholastic programs have started. Today, Crime Stoppers reaches around the world and is represented by the regions of the United States, Canada, Caribbean and Latin America, United Kingdom and Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and South Africa, and the Western Pacific.
The Crime Stoppers program has enjoyed great success, boasting an average conviction rate of 96% on cases solved by a tip to the program.
Features: the Crime Stoppers program is a charitable tax-exempt organization, run by citizens in the community. The program is solely supported by the public.
Benefits: Crime Stoppers is the most cost effective way law enforcement can gather information on crime. One phone call has the potential of solving many crimes in any given area. The program is a “law enforcement multiplier”.
People: The responsibility for establishing policy, raising funds, and controlling the amount and method of reward payment rests with a governing board of directors made up of citizens.