By Sarah Thomack
St. Joseph Post
There is now a way to report tips to Crime Stoppers in St. Joseph online or through an app on your phone.
Dave Hart with the St. Joseph Police Department said the website p3tips.com and P3 Tips app officially launched Friday.
“We tried to set it up so that it’s very intuitive, very easy to use… so you just fill out all of the information that you know, all the information you’re willing to provide us,” Hart said. “Once you’ve completed all the information that you have, you just submit it. It does allow you to give us some pictures, video, audio files, they can all be submitted to Crime Stoppers.”
Hart said if anyone is interested in receiving an award for their tip, there is an option for that.
“One thing we really want to point out is, this is Crime Stoppers, it’s separate from the police department,” Hart said. “So if you do want a reward for providing information, you’ll want to use this to send in your tip, and then after you click submit you’re going to get a username and password. Save that username and password because that’s the only way you’ll be able to register for a reward.”
Hart said the username and password also gives the tipster and the police department a way to communicate anonymously.
“Before we never could do that, the tip would come in and we would just have that one (piece of) information,” Hart said. “Now, if you’re willing, we can chat back and forth, we have no idea who you are or any way to find out, but we can still share information back and forth, which is a huge benefit we’re really excited about.”
Hart said the (816) 238-TIPS number is still available to call, but the app and online platforms will hopefully make it easier for people to report tips.
“The more information we get put in here, the more value the tip has, the more likely we can do something with it,” Hart said. “So we encourage people, be as detailed and descriptive as you can be.”
Hart said the app does not replace 9-1-1. It is to only be used for information to help with an investigation.
Hart adds there are several agencies across the country that use the software and different locations can be selected within the app to report a tip in that area.