Our speaker for this Zoom meeting was Arissa Lau, a representative (and notable speaker for) the Vancouver branch of Crime Stoppers.
This nation-wide entity is an independent, not-for-profit organization whose purpose is the operation of a ‘reporting system’ for the collection of information about crimes and criminals. Endorsed by all levels of the criminal justice system, it operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The information is collected by a live person (not a computer) and at this point can say that it operates in a possible 115 languages. No details of the caller are taken, and the assurance is always that the caller will never have to testify in court … and is not required to leave a phone number or an address. This preservation of privacy has been endorsed by the Supreme Court of Canada (R v. Leipert [1997] 1 SCR 281) and ensures that there will, at least through the Crime Stoppers medium, be no fear of retribution visited upon those who choose to report information about the commission of a crime.
One is pleased to note that the provision of information may lead to the payment of a fee, generally up to $5,000 if the information leads to a charge or an arrest. The caller is provided with a code number, and it is with this number that communication (further information or advice about an award, for examples) is established and maintained. There is also a mobile app that is available (though one might be concerned as to the ‘security’ that this mechanism might affect) and the number is (for those of us who might be interested!) 1-800-222-8477. And it succeeds: since 1976 there have been, through this collective mechanism, 965,163 arrests, 1,501,776 cases processed, property recovered to the value of $2,122,776,681, and drugs seized with a value of $8,976,384,548. The effect of all this ‘crime stopping’ is that, worldwide, there is a crime reported at the rate of 14 per minute. (Of course, this makes the witnesses to this presentation wonder about the extent of crime overall - here we are plainly dealing with the tip of a gigantic iceberg!).
Closer to home, the system seems to be equally effective: in Vancouver in 2021 there arrived 4,741 tips, property and drug cases of the value of $2,290,000 (though one might cavil at the precision of this figure) and 96 separate charges. Since the inception of the programme it is calculated that over half a billion dollar in property and drugs have been recovered
It has to be said that the presentation was excellent, but, one suspects, the information itself was somewhat stunning to most of us. We were treated to a rare view of the mechanics of a system that obviously works … but one still has to wonder how extensive is that iceberg.