By now, you may have seen some of the new advertisements from Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers that bluntly ask if you’ve reached your “tipping point”. The message is aimed at anyone who unwittingly finds themselves on the fringes of gang activity or gun violence and is ready to report what they know.
The question is: who do you contact? The ad campaign offers straightforward guidance about what to do if someone close to you is involved in gang crime or possesses an illegal weapon. The ads end with someone who’s decided “I had to tell someone, but he couldn’t know it was me” and an ANONYMOUS call to Crime Stoppers.
“When people call Crime Stoppers, they’ve usually been triggered into action by a discovery, a feeling, or a sudden recognition that something is really wrong – they’re at that ‘tipping point’,” says Linda Annis, Executive Director of Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers. “A tip to Crime Stoppers is the answer. Since we started these “Guns and Gangs” campaigns several years ago, tips to Crime Stoppers have resulted in 293 gang related arrests and 286 illegal weapons seized. You can contact us with complete anonymity—no one will ever know your identity. You won’t be approached by the police or anyone else, and you won’t have to appear in court.
If you have information about any crime that could lead to an arrest, anonymous tips may be provided through Crime Stoppers’ downloadable “P3” phone app, calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, online at solvecrime.ca, or by following the link on the Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers Facebook page.
Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers’ Guns and Gangs campaign is funded in part by a federal Guns and Gangs Violence Action Fund grant arranged with the assistance of the B.C. Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General.
