Crime Stoppers marks 40 years in Regina

Crime Stoppers is marking 40 years of service in the city of Regina.

The non-profit organization uses anonymous tips from community members as a liaison to Regina police to solve crimes that have been committed.

Kevin Bassendowski from Regina Crime Stoppers says because they have relied on the community for four decades it’s the people they want to celebrate the milestone with.

“It’s really the community that has brought us here,” he said. “So, we’re having a barbecue on September 26 from 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. we’re just hoping that everybody comes in from the community it’s at Regina police headquarters. Come in celebrate and learn about Crime Stoppers and mark the occasion.”

In terms of effectiveness, Bassendowski says there is one number he feels speaks volumes to what Crime Stoppers has done for Regina.

“Drugs seized and property recovered is in excess of $12 million in the 40 years,” he said.

Rewards for those who have helped successfully solve an ongoing case are over $293,000, according to Bassendowski.

Those who want to submit a tip now have a number of ways they can do so, including the the long-standing phone number.

“So, 1-800-222-TIPS, that’s 8-4-7-7, you can go to Regina Crime Stoppers.ca and there is a P3 tips app that you can use on your phone now,” Bassendowski said.

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Bassendowski said with the program’s anonymity it’s tough to tell why people choose to submit tips or which of the options they are using to provide their information.

“We don’t really know in a lot of cases why people are reporting them, and we don’t get a lot of information on how they are reporting them,” he said adding that statistics are provided to Crime Stoppers by Regina police.

“We are marketing almost to a group that we have no information about,” he added.

Bassendowski also said many people choose to not accept the cash reward if their tip results in a crime being solved and it’s been a mystery as to why the entire 40 years.

“So, the $293,000 that we’ve approved only about half of it is actually claimed and we have asked ourselves numerous times what can we do to get people to claim those rewards, but again for me what it shows is that the community wants to report the crime and they don’t necessarily want the reward.”

According to Regina Crime Stoppers a total of 26,177 tips have been received as of Sept. 16.

More than 2,300 arrests have been made because of tipsters providing information.