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Crime Stoppers building infrastructure, looking for tipline solution

There’s infrastructure work that’s required to properly run a non-profit organization.

Warren County Crime Stoppers did a big chunk of that work during Friday’s meeting.

Up first was the election of officers.

Todd Lake will lead the organization as president with Ken Klakamp to serve as vice-president. Kim Hall will be secretary while Gary Barnes will be treasurer.

A series of by-law issues were discussed with the goal of a first review of updated bylaws at the February meeting.

But a bigger issue was discussed that’s at the core of the organization – the tipline.

Crime Stoppers runs the tipline – (800) 83-CRIME – and also can present monetary awards for tips that lead to arrests.

Currently, the tipline is getting five to six calls per month. The line runs to the Warren County Sheriff’s Office.

Former Sheriff Brian Zeybel said that the current phone line is free but “virtually doesn’t work.”

Calls returned by the Sheriff’s Office also present a challenge. If someone is anonymously reporting information, they may not want to field a call and questions from the Sheriff’s Office.

The board discussed several options on Friday but ultimately settled on contacting potential local providers as well as contacting other county Crime Stoppers groups to see how they handle their tiplines.

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