At the end of the City of Newton Citizens Forum in July, Police Chief Randy Patrick passed out posters and cards promoting East Mississippi Crime Stoppers. With the lack of people talking being a major roadblock to crimes being solved in the city, Patrick and city officials feel that Crime Stoppers is one way that the community can assist in curbing crime.
East Mississippi Crime Stoppers is an organization that covers six counties in East Mississippi: Newton, Clarke, Neshoba, Kemper, Lauderdale, and Jasper. Their mission is to make cities and county’s safer by providing a method for law enforcement to receive information on recent or cold case crimes.
According to EMCS, there’s a three-part approach to solving the crime problem. Crime Stoppers relies on cooperation between the police, media, and the general community to provide a flow of information about crime and criminals. And the community can play a big part of the approach by placing an anonymous phone call or by way of online web tip.
“With what we’re having now, Crime Stoppers is a unique tool to have. If people have something they want to report or something that we push out that we need help on, Crime Stoppers is a great way to do that,” said Patrick. “It’s anonymous, you don’t have to worry about giving your name or anything. The only thing that they need is the information. And if somebody is convicted after the tip, they will get a cash reward for that.”
Cash rewards up to $1,000 are offered.
Tip Sharing
If someone has a tip to share, they can call 601-485-1860 or by using the toll-free number at 1-855-485-8477. Crimes can be reported 24 hours a day. The way the phone call works is the call is received by a call center that’s out of state. There is no caller ID and conversations are not recorded. From the call center, the information gets passed along to the EMCS coordinator, and they pass the information along to the investigating police officer.
Another way for a person to share a tip with Crime Stoppers is by doing so online at www.eastms.crimestoppersweb.com. Just as it is by phone, the process is secure and anonymous.
While Chief Patrick encourages the community to use Crime Stoppers to help the police department combat crime, he wants the community to know that the police department is working day and night to keep Newton safe.
“Newton is a great town, and there are great people in this town. And we’re doing everything that we possibly can, with the little bit of resources that we have, to try to make sure that everybody is safe,” he said. “And that’s my goal, I want everybody to be safe. Because I have my wife and grandchildren, they love this town. I love this town. I’d do everything I can to protect them. And I want them to feel safe, just as I want everyone else to feel safe.”
