Tipsters give police an edge
Tipsters give police an edge

If not for Crime Stoppers, Reghie Tyrell Stainer might still be on the streets and not in prison.

Detectives had little evidence in the January 2007 robbery and shooting death of Mike Lee, a clerk at the Korean Oriental Foods Store at 4250 S Bryant. Police knew only that the gunman was a black male, police Master Sgt. Charles Phillips said.

A short time later, an anonymous call was placed to Crime Stoppers leading police to the gunman. Stainer, 20, was arrested by the Metro Fugitive Task Force and city police at an apartment complex in the 5000 block of NW 10, police said. He was charged with first-degree murder, but convicted of first-degree manslaughter in September and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

That anonymous phone call was just one of 6,070 tips Oklahoma City Crime Stoppers received in 2007, an 8 percent increase over 2006. It also was one of the 1,292 crimes cleared, a 25 percent increase from 2006. A crime being cleared means it resulted in the district attorney's office filing charges.

Lee's death was one of 11 homicides solved from a Crime Stopper's tip. There were 66 homicides in Oklahoma City in 2007.

A victim is a victim regardless of the crime, Phillips said, but getting a tip on a homicide is different.

"Your blood pressure raises and your heart starts racing,” Phillips said. "It's a situation that can't be described when you are able to play a part in solving something that is so serious and victimizes so many people even above and beyond the victims themselves.”

The increase in the volume of tips can mostly be attributed to the implementation of TipSoft, an online program that allows people to relay information about a crime through the Internet anonymously, Phillips said.

"Often times I think when someone calls and speaks to an individual they somehow feel less anonymous,” Phillips said.

Web tipping led to more tips and more crimes solved because the Web-based version asks specific questions about a crime, whereas a phone tip often leaves incomplete information about a crime, Phillips said.

People still tend to call versus logging on to the Web, but 372 online tips in 2007 led to 30 crimes being cleared. The Crime Stoppers Web page received 6,686 views last year to offer information about a crime and find general information about rewards and the tipping process.

Phillips also attributed the increase in tips and crimes solved to name recognition and media coverage. Crime Stoppers has become a household name and has been around since 1979.

"A lot of crimes are highly publicized,” he said.

A surprising trend in 2007 was tips offered with no reward asked for. There were 78 "no reward requested” tips offered to Crime Stoppers in 2007, which was a 56 percent increase from 2006.

"I think that speaks well to the attitudes of citizens in Oklahoma City,” Phillips said. "They weren't as motivated by a reward, but more about doing the right thing.”

A total of $49,800 was approved to be rewarded to tipsters in 2007, which was a 15 percent increase from the year before. Of that, $36,000 had been paid. The average paid per tip was $147, an increase of 6 percent. The national average is $450.

Reward money is donated by private companies, such as Union Bank of Oklahoma City; Anderson Software of Nacogdoches, Texas, which provides the software for the web site, and many others.

Phillips hopes the new wave of Crime Stoppers will be under way in February. In addition to calling and logging on to the Web site, tipsters will be able to text-message tips to Crime Stoppers.

"What this will do is help reach a demographic that maybe before we couldn't reach,” he said. "For many, that's the most common way they communicate. That and we can get information almost instantly.”

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