This is the second in a series of four weekly articles dedicated to Crime Stoppers month:
After decades in use, the Crime Stoppers phone number — 1-800-222-TIPS — is easy to remember, but the organization is also trying to raise its profile in the online world.
In this region, Crime Stoppers has taken the lead in soliciting anonymous tips for police through social media, text messaging and a highly secure website.
“The social media side, the website and that, is prize-winning. We’ve won B.C. awards and were cited by Crime Stoppers International as being a leader in quality and type of website,” said South Okanagan-Similkameen Crime Stoppers president Bob Ogden.
He noted that the majority of tips are still received by phone, but between 25 and 30 per cent now arrive by some other electronic form.
The men behind the screens are Nick Yeoman and Joe Andreucci, both members of the volunteer board of South Okanagan-Similkameen Crime Stoppers.
“Trying to hit all our bases is the goal” of the expanded Internet presence, explained Yeoman, who owns an online marketing company based in Summerland.
He said a tool like Facebook expands the reach of Crime Stoppers far beyond its traditional limits and to younger audiences.
“At one point, we had 20,000 people in the area involved on Facebook,” he noted.
Yeoman credited Andreucci with setting up the organization’s Twitter and Facebook accounts and doing the majority of work on those platforms, while he focuses more on strategy and the website.
So far, that work has paid off, with visits to www.sostips.ca growing from about 200 per year in 2011 to nearly 5,500 in 2014.
Still, Yeoman and Andreucci are hoping people will come forward to assist them with their digital duties, particularly those with experience on social media sites like Pinterest and Instagram.
“We’re trying to be on every single one,” said Yeoman.
Visit www.sostips.ca for more information on Crime Stoppers and to learn about volunteer opportunities.