By NICOLE MARSHALL World Staff Writer
Published: 7/19/2009
For three decades, Tulsa's Crime Stoppers program has been cracking down on crime by paying rewards to people who report criminals to police.
Tips from Tulsa-area residents have helped police solve thousands of felony crimes, recover millions of dollars worth of stolen property and narcotics, and catch dangerous fugitives.
The key is anonymity.
"This is just an avenue for people to tell us what is going on in the community," said Officer Jason Willingham, the Tulsa Police Department's Crime Stoppers coordinator.
"We only have so many officers, and we can't put them on every block. We realize that people are afraid of retaliation, and this gives people the opportunity to tell us about a crime without putting their names out there."
Crime Stoppers is a core program of the Citizens Crime Commission — a nonprofit organization that brings together Tulsa residents, businesses and law enforcement — that was founded in Tulsa in February 1979. Crime Stoppers rewards are provided through individual and corporate donations.
"What I am so proud of is that it really shows private-public partnership," said Carol Bush, the Crime Commission's executive director.
In its first year, Crime Stoppers solved 99 felony cases, 81 arrests were made, and stolen goods worth $139,549 were recovered.
In the last 30 years, more than $500,000 has been awarded for information that led detectives to solve more than 5,500 felony cases. The amount of stolen property and narcotics recovered totals more than $12 million.
'Thief Takers'
When the program started, the first Crime Stoppers coordinator for the Tulsa Police Department, now-retired Officer Ed Jackson, said in a newspaper story that the Crime Stoppers concept had begun about 400 years earlier in England with a program called "Thief Takers."
But that program had a fatal flaw, he said. Authorities failed to check the validity of most information, arresting everyone who was reported without regard to the facts.
In contrast, Sgt. Mike Huff, supervisor of the Tulsa Police Department's Homicide Unit, said that "when I review these tips every day, I am looking for something really rich in details that really only the killer would know. I can tell you there have been days where I have immediately sent the whole squad out to validate a crime tip because it was so rich in details."
When Tulsa's program began, Jackson had to convince a few people that the concept would work.
Some business owners feared the attention it would bring to crimes that had occurred at their shops, and naysayers doubted the public would cooperate and the award money would entice tips.
But even when Crime Stoppers started here three decades ago, the Crime Commission offered up to $1,000 to get the worst-of-the-worst criminals off the streets, and soon the promise of rewards started bringing in valuable tips.
Since the program began, the Tulsa Police Department has designated one of its officers as a coordinator or liaison to the program.
Willingham said the Crime Stoppers hot line, 596-COPS, averages about 315 tips a month. The program added Web-based tips and text messages last year as alternative ways of submitting tips. Willingham reads them all and forwards them to the appropriate investigator.
If a tip leads to an arrest, the Crime Commission board determines how much reward money should be paid. The tipster then arranges to pick up the reward at a local bank.
But not all tipsters are in it for the money. To date this year, only 39 percent of the tipsters who qualify for rewards have picked them up, Willingham said.
"That says right there that it is not always about the money. It is about being able to make our community a little safer and remaining anonymous."
Bush said officials started noticing a downturn in Crime Stoppers calls about two summers ago after a high-profile shooting at a Tulsa park. At the time, police said that the "no snitch" culture was impairing investigations.
"We started going out in neighborhoods, reminding people how anonymous it is. These calls are not even being answered here; they are being answered in Canada."
Call-takers at an answering service there write down the tips and provide callers with numbers they can later use to check on the status of their tips with the police Crime Stoppers coordinator, she said.
"Jason (Willingham) and I are pretty happy with the fact our arrest rates are up," Bush said. "With that 'you snitch, you die' thing that was going on, no one was calling."
Huff said he is encouraged that the number of tips has increased recently. The anonymity, he said, "is what makes the Crime Stoppers program really work."
Springboard to politics
Several people who have worked in Tulsa's Crime Stoppers program have gone on to careers in politics.
They include state Rep. Lucky Lamons, a former police officer who served as the program's coordinator from 1994 through 2002.
Without a doubt, Lamons believes that his visibility with the Crime Stoppers program helped boost his political career. He won his first election with 71 percent of the vote and his second election with 73 percent of the vote.
Former Mayor Susan Savage, now secretary of state in Gov. Brad Henry's administration, was instrumental in setting up the program when she served as director of the Citizens Crime Commission.
State Rep. Jeannie McDaniel worked with the Crime Commission from 1981 until 1991, serving as executive director for four of those years.
Former Tulsa Police Officer Scott Walton served as Crime Stoppers coordinator for the department. He was elected sheriff of Rogers County last year.
Although it has been several years since Lamons was the Crime Stoppers coordinator, he said he still remembers certain calls vividly. One such call assisted in the Oct. 24, 1996, homicide investigation of Trisha Stemple.
Stemple's husband had told police that he began searching for his wife when she failed to return from a 2:30 a.m. shopping trip to a Wal-Mart to buy medicine. He claimed that she must have been struck and killed by a car after her car broke down on U.S. 75 between 81st and 91st streets.
An anonymous source had a different story to tell.
"It was a very simple call. A man said he drove by early that morning and saw a man and a woman arguing in front of a car on Highway 75. That little piece of information helped take the case from a hit-and-run traffic accident to a homicide," Lamons said.
Timothy Shaun Stemple was convicted of carrying out the long-planned murder — motivated by a desire to collect $950,000 in insurance money — by beating his wife with a baseball bat and then driving over her with the aid of a teenage accomplice.
"It is still a valuable tool for law enforcement and a great thing for the Police Department," Lamons said of the program. "The Crime Commission plays an important role by raising the funds."
To continue supporting the program, interested parties can call the Crime Commission's office at 585-5209.
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By the numbers
Since its inception in 19 9, Crime Stoppers has awarded more than $500,000 for information that resulted in more than 5,500 felony cases being solved.
The amount of stolen property and narcotics recovered totals more than $12 million.
In 200 , 2,689 tips were received and 9 arrests were made.
In 2008, 2,065 tips were received and 5 arrests were made — six of them in high-profile homicide cases.
Crime Stoppers boasts an 80 percent arrest rate for fugitives featured in its Most Wanted program.
Recognizing the history
Three decades of Crime Stoppers in Tulsa will be recognized at the annual fundraiser Badges and Bars on Oct. 29. Carol Bush, the Crime Commission’s executive director, said organizers are planning to gather past police chiefs as well as Crime Stoppers coordinators and Crime Commission directors to recognize the program.
Nicole Marshall 581-8459
nicole.marshall@tulsaworld.com
By NICOLE MARSHALL World Staff Writer
Copyright Tulsa World 2009. Format differs from original publication.
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