A break-in, a trip to the bank, a tip
to 528-CASH, and 3 felony charges

It began some time around the night of Oct. 30, 2015. One or more burglars break into in an office building on Union Avenue in Midtown. Blank checks are found and removed from the premises.

Fast forward to October 31, Halloween. A woman enters a SunTrust Bank on Frayser Boulevard and cashes some checks. Later the checks prove to be stolen and to have come from the burglary.

Fortunately, images are caught of the woman at the bank and publicized.

Days later, an anonymous citizen calls CrimeStoppers on the 528-CASH (2274) tips line. The caller provides an identity of the woman in the bank photos.

Finally, police investigators positively identity, locate and arrest Antronette Armstrong and charge her with identity theft, forgery and theft of property above $500. She goes to jail.

Those are the typical steps that occur when a crime is coupled with a successful citizen's tip to CrimeStoppers.

The tip was one of 29 about felonies taken at the Real Time Crime Center during December. Twenty of those ended in arrests and were approved for payments. Nineteen people showed up at a designated site to collect a total of $6,500 in awards.

The December tips helped finish an extraordinary year for CrimeStoppers, with increases in all significant measurements, numbers of tips, arrests and cases solved.

"The statistics reveal how important CrimeStoppers is to fighting crime in ths community," said E. Winslow (Buddy) Chapman, executive director and a founder of the organization.

"With most crimes, some good citizen knows something that can help police. This has been proven many times. This is why CrimeStoppers works."


CrimeStoppers 2015 edition
by the numbers

A citizen tip about crimes and criminals has always proven to be an important law enforcement tool.
The 2015 numbers prove how important:

* Tip volume last year was up 21.15 percent over the year before.

* The number of resulting felony arrests grew by 35.81 percent.

* The number of tips that proved successful (ending in solution to cases) showed a 40.44 percent increase over 2014.



 

CopperStoppers was created by CrimeStoppers in collaboration with businesses to fight the theft of and illegal sales, purchases and transportation out of town of copper and other scrap metals.

Copper stripped from wiring, appliances, plumbing or electrical boxes may bring hundreds of dollars when sold, but often results in thousands of dollars in damages to homes, apartments, churches 
and other facilities.

Special awards up to $1,000 are available for information leading to arrests. 
 
Help stop the criminals - the "copperheads" - doing economic harm to our community.

Visit www.crimestopmem.org for information on how to help.   

JANUARY
2016
We have a growing
Facebook community
 
It's easy to keep up with all that we're doing, including each week's spotlight on a major crime that needs citizen tips.

We focus on those through our "Crime Of The Week" feature on our main website - crimestopmem.org - and on our busy Facebook page - CrimeStoppers of Memphis and Shelby County.

Visit the Facebook page and like us or leave us a message.
 


Websites building
new awareness

CrimeStoppers and its various programs are explained - and the public is engaged - in various places on the internet.
 
The main website explains the organization's purpose, and keeps count on major cases in which police need help from citizens -  www.crimestopmem.org.
 
A companion site helps students keep their schools safer - www.trustpays.org.
Senior citizens who are afraid or otherwise need help can find information they can use at another site - www.seniorbsafe.org.
 
Spanish-speaking citizens can learn about CrimeStoppers on a fourth site - www.pagoconfidencial.org.
 
Additionally, because the 
theft of copper and other metal and appliances has become a major problem in the metro area, CrimeStoppers is building a site for its new program called Copperstoppers.
   
DV by the numbers

More than half of all violent crime in our greater Memphis community is DV-related, when the wide definition of domestic violence is taken into effect, including family members, roommates, and ex-intimate partners.

The total domestic violence offenses through the first eight months of 2015: 11,451.


Survey
   
A survey, put together by the University of Memphis Criminology Office,    
over time will help show how awareness of sexual assault and domestic violence is changing. It only takes a few minutes to do the survey and the results are completely anonymous. 

TAKE THE SURVEY. 

Help spread the word

If you like - we hope you do! - you can help the cause against the metal thieves by liking our new Copperstoppers Facebook page. And tell your friends, co-workers and acquaintances.

While you're at it, let them know about the main CrimeStoppers Facebook page too.