It’s been a long and winding road, but Scotland County finally has Crimestoppers up and running.
After many starts and stops thanks to a quirky telephone number, the program officially kicked off on Monday after being absent for the better part of a decade.
We will start by applauding the tireless efforts of the Laurinburg Police Department and Scotland County Sheriff’s Office to bring Crimestoppers back to a county that has desperately needed it.
In the face of some regular naysayers and skeptics, the county has already taken on a safer atmosphere, simply because there is now a truly anonymous and viable process to bring criminals — especially those cowards who resort to the use of guns — to justice.
Put simply, Crimestoppers — which began in New Mexico in 1976 — is a three-part approach to addressing the crime problem. Crimestoppers relies on cooperation between law enforcement, the media, and the public to provide a flow of information about crime and criminals. Crime Stoppers is a private, nonprofit organization that receives no tax dollars for its work. It assists law enforcement officers and agencies but is not part of law enforcement. Crimestoppers cannot, itself, investigate crimes, make arrests, or serve as the intake agency for initial reports of crime from victims of the crime.
That’s where the Laurinburg Police Department and Sheriff’s Office come in.
Our hope is that the residents of Scotland County understand how Crimestoppers works, how safe and anonymous it will be and how much their input is necessary for the program to work.
As readers will see in today’s Saturday Spotlight by Senior Writer Katelin Gandee, our local law enforcement is high on the Crimestoppers program and ready to help it be successful in getting some of the criminal element off the streets of Scotland County.
Since the first chapter was officially formed in Albuquerque in 1976, Crimestoppers in the United States has been responsible for more than 800,000 arrests and more than $4.2 billion in recovered property.
It works.
You just have to use it.
Crimestoppers can also use your donations. It’s what pays for valid tips. To do that, mail a check made out to Crimestoppers to P.O. Box 64066 Virginia Beach, VA 23467 — or go online to www.crimestoppersusa.org/donate/ and make a donation.
It is our hope the Scotland Crimestoppers tip line is already lighting up.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Crime and bad lives are the measure of the state’s failure; all crime in the end is tfhe crime of the community.”
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