Put simply, Crime Stoppers is a three-pronged 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.

STRUCTURE AND FUNDING OF CRIME STOPPERS

Guam Crime Stoppers is organized as a not-for-profit organization. A civilian community board of directors provides direction as to the financial and promotional activities of the program. The board of directors enhances the community involvement aspect, and its function is vital to the programs success. The key functions of the board of directors are oversight of promotion of the program in order to make it as effective as possible, ensurance that all protocals and legal aspects of the anonymity aspect of the program are adhered to, training of all who are involved in the program, and arranging funding of the program through events, grants from civic organizations, corporate support and other donations.

The Crime Stoppers program is funded by private donations and fund raising. NO TAX DOLLARS are involved. The reward money paid out by the program is from the fund-raising and donations from concerned citizens and businesses.

A community board of directors, made up of persons from throughout the area, meets on a monthly basis to evaluate arrests and to decide on the size of rewards to be paid, up to $1,000. Rewards are then distributed in a private manner to the callers. Callers are eligible for rewards up to $1,000, but, despite this, many callers choose not to collect their rewards.

DOES CRIME STOPPERS WORK?

The answer is quite simply yes. Since the start of Guam Crime Stoppers in 1985, many calls have been received resulting in thousands of arrests and recovery of substantial amounts of property. Calls have included information about murder, robbery, rape, assaults, drug and firearm offenses. The involvement of Crime Stoppers in one case on Guam, involving a robbing of the Treasurer of Guam, has become a case study for training in Crime Stoppers for programs and law enforcement throughout the United States.

Guam Crime Stoppers statistics show that in the past 25 years its efforts have led to about 383 arrests for serious crimes with 61 rewards paid out, totaling about $22,500. Crime Stoppers tips have helped solve seven murders on Guam. The amount of recovered property and seized drugs in Guam is more than $4 million.

The success of a Crime Stoppers program cannot be purely judged on statistics, however, other benefits have come to notice:

• A greater awareness in the community that there is a crime problem.
• A willingness by the community to fight back against crime if it is given the opportunity and motivation.
• Improved relationships between police, media, and the community.

Crime Stoppers is definitely here to stay. It has been accepted by police as a valid and effective investigative tool and the public, through its overwhelming response, appears to have accepted it as a more palatable alternative to traditional methods of giving information.