Tipping Off The Police Via Text Message

For years, Oklahoma City Police relied on the tip hotline, Crime Stoppers, to help them in their crime-fighting efforts. Now the method to anonymously report a crime just got a whole lot easier.

This week, the department launched "Text A Tip," a program that would allow the text-savvy generation to report tips via text message.  It's the second program of its kind in the country, behind Boston.

Sergeant Charlie Phillips, who overseas the Crime Stoppers program, says the program took nine months to launch and was done as a means of keeping pace with the technological age.

I think it's a good move.

Oklahoma City because the second city in the world to launch the Crime Stoppers hotline back in 1979. Through that hotline, officers made 6,000 arrests, cleared over 12,000 cases and seized nearly $29 million in drugs and property.  Just last year, OCPD launched an internet component.

Sgt. Phillips expects the arrest numbers to quadruple with this new text-tip initiative, which could only mean safer streets for the public at large.

It's a good thing.