Crime Stoppers Big Help to Livingston

Crime Stoppers is making an increasing impact on crime in Livingston Parish, according to law
enforcement officials.
The use of social media is making it even more effective, said Walker Police Chief Hunter Grimes.
Walker said that he has seen a reduction in violent crimes since Crime Stoppers is being used in
the city.
Grimes said that his department has gotten community involvement on almost every case in which
Crime Stoppers’ has become involved.
Walker has actively used Crime Stoppers over the last three or four years, Crime Stoppers Execu-
tive Director Sid Newman said.
Though it has been in Livingston Parish for 30 years, law enforcement officials in the parish have
become extremely active in using Crime Stoppers in recent years, Newman said.
“We have a tremendous amount of success with wanted fugitives in the Livingston area,” Newman
said.
The Greater Baton Rouge Crime Stoppers, which was formed in 1982, serves Livingston, Iberville,
Point Coupee, East and West Baton Rouge, East and West Feliciana and Ascension parishes.

In addition to helping law enforcement in the parish solve crimes, Crime Stoppers is also saving
law enforcement agencies money, Livingston Parish Chief Criminal Deputy Jason Ard said.
Instead of having to pay for tips from “snitches,” law enforcement can turn the case over to Crime
Stoppers and let the community help solve it, Ard said.
Ard sees Crime Stoppers making bigger differences over the next few years. Both Ard and Grimes
agreed that social media has increased Crime Stoppers’ success. It is a new way to provide tips, and
helps police encourage tipsters to come forward, Ard said. Ard said that many people would rather
use the Internet to leave their tips.
Newman said that Crime Stoppers has expanded to Facebook.
Crime Stoppers has many ways to leave a tip: by phone at (225)-344-STOP, text CS225 to Crimes
(274637) or on crimestoppersbr.com. Whatever method is used, the caller, texter, or web-user always
remains anonymous.
Crime Stoppers now has a free iPhone app called Tip Submit. The app still allows all the tipsters to
remain “completely anonymous,” he said.
“We do not want to know who is contacting us,” Newman said.
In the last 30 years, Baton Rouge Crime Stoppers has never had to reveal the identity of a caller
because Crime Stoppers officials don’t know who the callers are, Newman said.
When someone calls Crime Stoppers, a code number is the only thing that identifies them.
The program allows a concerned citizen to “get involved without becoming involved,” Newman
said. There are “no names, no IDs, no court” for the caller and they “never have to testify.”
Reward amounts range from $50 to $5,000 with the latter being for information that leads to the ar-
rest and indictment of a person who has committed multiple homicides.
The Greater Baton Rouge Crime Stoppers in one of the most successful of the 1,200 Crime Stop-
per organizations around the world Newman said. Statistically it is solving 1.04 felony crimes daily,
Newman said.
Also, Crime Stoppers has led to the arrest of 10,000 felons and the solving of 11,000 felonies while
only spending an average of $140 for every crime solved over the last 30 years, Newman said.
Crime Stoppers is a non-profit, privately owned organization and while it is helped by federal, state
a and local law enforcement, it still “strongly survives on donations,” Newman said.