Flin Flon city council hopes to take a bite out of crime with financial aid for Manitoba Crime Stoppers.
Council voted Tuesday to renew its annual support of 10 cents per resident – $563 – for the Winnipeg-based volunteer organization.
This came at the request of the not-for-profit program, which relies on yearly donations from municipal governments as a major source of funding.
Flin Flon RCMP have long cited Crime Stoppers as a valuable tool.
It allows people to anonymously share information on unsolved crimes through phone, text or email.
Crime Stoppers then passes the data onto the proper RCMP detachment, which uses it to investigate everything from drug dealing to hallway bullying.
Crime Stoppers does not subscribe to caller ID or other tracing services, and no names are ever required. Instead, tipsters are given an ID number.
If information leads to the resolution of an investigation, the source provides the ID number to become eligible for a cash reward. The process of collecting the rewards, as high as $2,000, can be done anonymously.
But money isn’t high on the priority list for most callers, as most never follow up about a possible reward.
In the past 28 years, Manitoba Crime Stoppers has received thousands of tips from across the province, paying cash rewards totalling more than $200,000.
It has also recovered over $40 million in drugs and property.
