7 News Belize

Seen a Crime? There’s An App for That
posted (December 4, 2019)
Crime Stoppers Belize was established in 2004. The program provides the public with an easy, safe and anonymous way to give tips that could help police solve crime. Most, if not all of us are very familiar with their 922 hotline, but the board members want you to get comfortable with their new app. It is called P3 Tips. It was officially launched last night at the Biltmore. We spoke with a crime stoppers board member today about how the app works and why everyone should download it.

Lauren Reardon Smith, Chairperson, Crime stoppers Board
"Now that technology is moving forward and apps are everywhere it is now even easier to submit a tip from you mobile phone, you can go on the computer, to the crime stoppers website and submit your tip there or from your phone and that app is called P3 Tips so you go on either apple app store or android device the play store and you can download for free. As you download it, it will ask you to enter a pass code that is your private, personal pass code when you enter it and choose your location and it works from any location, you can be in the US, you can be in Central America, the Caribbean, Europe and some parts of Asia, this app works in all those places and so if you are in Belize you choose Belize, you choose the crime stoppers and a list of offenses comes up whether it is drugs, assault, child abuse, all the different offenses are listed and if you want to submit a tip based on any of those, you click on it and you can send digital images like pictures or videos and so you have absolutely no need to come forward as a eyewitness because this app will take care of it. It is completely encrypted."

"Once we log on we receive the information and the only person who is authorized to log on is our police coordinator. We have a new police coordinator. His name is Mr. Noel Leal, Assistant Commissioner of Police and he is retiring in December. He is our new police coordinator so all tips are received through him and then he then passes on the information to the different security forces whether it is an infraction on the border, and it has to deal with you know the Belize Defense force or if it is contraband or customs he passes it on to customs, if it is child abuse then he goes to women's department that deal with..or missing persons. He deals with all of the filtering of data."

"We have had a number of successes over the years, we have had arrests and convictions for murder. Arson, child abuse, for robberies, we have recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen items so it works really well and it is a tool exclusively for the use of assisting the security forces in their fight against crime and I really encourage every single person and every single organization, everybody to download it on their phone because you never know when you are going to need that lifeline to justice and you would want someone to submit a tip for you if you happen to maybe it is a car accident and someone saw that the other person was in the wrong and someone submit that information, it could be any kind of infraction."

Again, the download is easy and free. Just go to the Apple app store or Android Play store, search for P3 Tips and download. Put in your private pass code and you are in. If you know anything about any criminal activity, just pick a crime from the list provided, fill out the form with the information you know, the more details you give, the better and then submit the tip. The tips goes to the lead police coordinator who remains online and responds or forwards the information accordingly. Now this app is not a substitute for 911, if it is an emergency call the police immediately. Smith says that they reward persons only if their tips result in an arrest. The reward for tips that lead to arrests in murder cases goes up to $2,000.

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