$1,000 for crime tips
Crimestoppers needs your help
CAPE CORAL, Fla. - 24 murders in 2012.
That's a record number of murders in Ft. Myers. Most remain unsolved.
So Thursday we asked Southwest Florida Crimestoppers what they can do in this new year to put some of these bad guys behind bars.
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Anthony Scott, Jamel James, Brandon Seabrook. Just three of the people murdered last year in Ft. Myers. Their killers are still on the streets.
"Anyone who is a victim of a crime does not need to be forgotten," Laura Connell said, with SWFL Crimestoppers.
The organization sent out mailers a few months back with the names of the murdered on them, sent to homes in the neighborhoods where the crimes happened.
"In light of all the murders last year, are these mailers something you would consider again this year?" Hogan asked Connell.
She said they would, and are planning to ask the Attorney General's office in Tallahassee for the funding to send out the mailers again this year.
"We've had a lot of unsolved murders from last year in Ft. Myers. Are you guys doing anything special to get them solved?" Hogan asked Connell.
"We're very excited about 2013," she said. "We're extremely passionate about the program, about making arrests, getting people off the streets, solving crimes."
She says they've seen an increase in tips recently, saying Crimestoppers tipsters have cracked the case in several recent robberies.
"You can remain anonymous," she said. "We have no caller id, we don't record any phone calls, we don't disclose relationships in the tip information or gender."
You could get up to $1,000 for useful information.
Connell says last year, Crimestoppers took in more than 4,500 tips and paid out more than $166,000 in reward money.
Still -
"You can't put a price on doing the right thing," Connell said.
You can report tips several different ways:
1-800-780-tips (8477)
Text crimes (274637) - keyword reward
tipsubmit app iphone or android
online at www.swflcrimestoppers.org
Colleen Hogan, reporter
chogan@jrn.com
chogan@jrn.com
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