By Dioni L. Wise
Greensboro News & Record
GREENSBORO — A phone call can be the deciding factor in solving a major criminal case.
An anonymous call to Crime Stoppers at 373-1000 helped a mother find her stolen newborn in June 1988.
A woman pretending to be a nurse had taken a 2-day-old infant, Jason Ray McClure, from his mother’s room at High Point Regional Hospital.
“It was a big case,” said Julia Styers, assistant coordinator of the Greensboro-Guilford County Crime Stoppers. “Someone walks out of the hospital with somebody else’s baby. It was just all over the news and everything at the time.”
Someone called Crime Stoppers soon afterward and gave a police sergeant the name and address of the suspect, Styers said.
Two days after Jason disappeared, detectives found him unharmed at the home of the suspect’s boyfriend.
“It was very exciting that we were able to get information that helped in the arrest,” Styers said. “It was really a good thing for the program and, also, for the child that we located.”
That case is one of nearly 7,000 that the local Crime Stoppers program has helped clear since its inception. It’s 30th anniversary was Friday.
As of Friday, 27,544 calls led to 10,858 arrests, 6,994 cases cleared and more than $20.6 million worth of recovered drugs and stolen property.
“I can remember when we would get maybe 20 calls a month, and I was tickled to get that many,” said Styers, who has been with the program since 1984.
Now, the program receives 80 to 120 calls each month, she said.
An estimated $26,000 in rewards are given to tipsters in a year, said Kevin von der Lippe, chairman of the program’s board of directors.
Crime Stoppers is a nonprofit, community-policing program staffed by two city employees and run by a board of volunteers.
It has been recognized regionally and nationally for its efforts. In 2009, Greensboro-Guilford County Crime Stoppers received the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award.
It succeeds for two main reasons: strict confidentiality and monetary payoffs of up to $2,000.
The tip-taking process hasn’t changed much over the past 30 years.
Crime Stopper’s 373-1000 phone number is the only city-owned phone without caller ID.
Callers are identified by unique numbers, not by name.
They must contact Crime Stoppers to see if they are eligible for a reward.
If an arrest is made, the tipster is given a “payoff number.” The tipster must take that number to a bank at an appointed time to meet with a board member. Tipsters receive a check made out to the “payoff number.”
All reward money is raised and distributed by the board of directors. No tax money is used.
“Organizations like Crime Stoppers become more and more important,” said von der Lippe. “When we get tips, we’re saving man hours and we’re solving crimes.”
The Crime Stoppers tip line is an outlet people can use to avoid retribution.
“There is very little that goes on in this world that people don’t know about, but they’re not necessarily there when we arrive at the crime scene,” said Capt. John Wolfe, commander of the criminal investigations division.
“Some people are very fearful when we roll up. They’ve seen horrible things happen, and they don’t want to be a statistic.”
Crime Stoppers lead coordinator Becky Fallon said that the program wants to use a program that allows tipsters to text tips. Crimes Stoppers is applying for a $5,000 grant from the Governor’s Crime Commission to pay for the software and promotional materials, Fallon said.
Now, middle and high school students report crimes to school resource officers, who relay that information to Crime Stoppers. Texting tips could cut out the middle man and increase the number of tips from young people.
“It’s just another tool I think for those kids who don’t want to be seen going into the office,” Fallon said.
The Guilford County Sheriff’s Office and Crimestoppers of High Point, a similar program that only serves the city of High Point, launched their respective text-a-tip programs last year.
“I think everybody will eventually go to that because we are always evolving,” Styers said. “We always try to be as advanced as the next program.”
Sgt. N.O. Rankin, who leads the homicide unit, said he sees the program improving with age. The inside information garnered already provides much help to investigators.
Most recently, a tip helped police corroborate information they had developed in the shooting deaths of Marquise Steens and his 7-year-old son, Malique Steens.
“An investigation is like a puzzle. You got to put all the pieces together,” Rankin said. “The information from Crime Stoppers could be the one or two pieces that we’re looking for.”
Contact Dioni L. Wise at 373-7090 or dioni.wise@news-record.com CRIMES SOLVED BY CRIME STOPPERS TIPS
May 1982: Leo Thompson was arrested in East Orange, N.J. The man, charged with murder, had been a fugitive from Greensboro for 12 years.
November 1992: Rookie Greensboro patrolman Porter Robinson was chasing a stolen car when his cruiser crashed into a tree on West Market Street. The 24-year-old died. Tips led officers to the two teenagers Robinson was chasing, and they were charged.
December 2009: A suspect was charged with burning a puppy named Susie. Her story began the campaign for Susie’s Law, which increased the penalties for abusing animals in North Carolina.
July 2010: A mixed-breed dog named Phoenix was burned while tied in a backyard. Four people, including three juveniles, were charged.
October 2010: A tip led to the arrest of two suspects accused of fatally shooting Marquise Steens and his 7-year-old son, Malique Steens.
Source: Greensboro-Guilford County Crime Stoppers MORE INSIDE: How has Crime Stoppers helped? A list of crimes solved by tips.
go online: To view a timeline of Crime Stoppers’ evolution, visit The Crime Scene blog at news-record.com/blog/crimescene.
LEARN MORE: Visit the local Crime Stoppers website at http://ow.ly/3JwxN.
Calls to the program have led to more than 10,000 arrests in 30 years, and it hopes to start accepting text messages soon.
Copyright 2011 News & Record (Greensboro, NC)