Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers

How it Works

Put simply it is a three part approach to solving the crime problem. Crime Stoppers relies on cooperation between the police, the media, and the general community to provide a flow of information about crime and criminals.

The Online WebTip

Tipsters now have the option of giving us tips online. The process is completely secure and anonymous and is a very effective and efficient means of safely communicating with us in today's world. Our WebTip process is powered by the world's leading online tip solution provider, Anderson Software.

The very unique integrated Two-Way Dialog capabilties allow the tipster to come back and provide additional information to their tip at any time, but also provides a secure means for the coordinator to ask questions or provide reward information back to the tipster through the same secure and encrypted interface.

The Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers 816-474-TIPS Hotline does not record calls nor does it have caller I.D. When someone phones in with information about a crime or wanted person they can be completely confident that they will not be identified.

Each caller is given a code number after they have given their tip. It is up to them to stay in touch with Crime Stoppers to monitor any results of their information. Should their tip result in a felony arrest, they will be told on their next contact to call back on the day following the next Crime Stoppers board meeting.

At the monthly meetings, the board reviews all tips that have resulted in arrests and approve, raise, or lower reward recommendations given by the program’s coordinator. All reward funds are derived from fundraising events or donations.

When the caller phones back he or she is told to be at a certain drive-thru bank at a specific time on the next day where they must send in to tellers coded information given to them by the coordinator. As long as the information is correct, the cash reward is sent out to the caller and they simply drive away, their identity still unknown to Crime Stoppers.

In 1986 the I.R.S. made a ruling exempting Crime Stoppers programs from having to collect personal information on callers in order to collect their rewards. Since 1982, our program has handed out over $1,000,000 in rewards at no taxpayer expense.