CNMI Crime Stoppers president Jim Arenovski, who was one of this week’s guests at the Rotary Club meeting at the Hyatt Regency Saipan, said they are looking at different ways to come up with funds this year.
He said they want to negotiate with the local cable TV station and produce a new form of campaign at a much lesser cost.
“We need to get the message across to the community that we need their help in reporting crimes,” he said.
He added that the Crime Stoppers program has also expanded its campaign to schools and the different sectors of the community.
He said Crime Stoppers spent about $10,000 for its campaign last year but they recently stopped airing the “Crime of the Week” stories on KSPN Channel 2 due to lack of funding.
Arenovski said the “Crime of the Week” segment aired on Fridays featured stories of crimes to inform people that they could help solve crimes by reporting them to the police.
He said last year, Crime Stoppers received over 500 calls regarding information about crimes, and four arrests were made from these calls.
They have paid out $1,800 to tipsters last year.
He added that not all callers wanted monetary rewards but most of them just wanted to put criminals behind bars.
Since its inception in 1989, Arenovski said Crime Stoppers program has paid out less than $10,000 to tipsters.
“Crime Stoppers had its ups and downs for the past years, and 2009 will be another challenging year for us,” Arenovski said.
Crime Stoppers pays up to $1,000 reward for any information on crimes that will lead to an arrest. Anyone having information about crimes can call the NMI Crime Stoppers Hotline at 234-7272. All calls are kept anonymous and no caller ID is used.
