What does Crime Stoppers do for New Brunswick?

Since its inception in 1985 N.B. Crime Stoppers has helped…
(as of October 2024):

• Recover over $9.6 million in stolen property
• Remove over $73 million worth of drugs off the streets of NB
• With information that has led to over 9,328 arrests

Donations help benefit crime prevention in your community

Since 1985, N.B. Crime Stoppers has paid $241,575 in cash awards to anonymous tipsters.

The New Brunswick community has recovered $38.70 for every dollar it has invested in Crime Stoppers. Crime Stoppers is a good community investment. It is a charitable organization, which relies solely on donations from private citizens, organizations, and local businesses. We depend on you (the public) for the funds necessary to stop and prevent crime. Crime Stoppers helps solve a major crime every 14 minutes somewhere in the world – do your part, get involved. Donate to Crime Stoppers Online.

Why Crime Stoppers?

When a criminal case is not solved within a reasonable length of time, the investigative leads diminish. The trail becomes cold, evidence becomes unobtainable, and the crime becomes increasingly more difficult to solve. For this reason, most police department files contain many unsolved cases. When this occurs, a method is needed that will re-awaken public interest and will also call upon citizens for help in providing the needed information.

Quite often, citizens witness all or part of a crime without being aware of what they have seen. Consequently, they unknowingly possess key information that could aid law enforcement in solving the crime. In order for law enforcement to receive this vital information, the citizens must be made aware of the importance of the information they possess. The incident must be recalled to their attention and explained what information is needed by the police to solve the crime.

All too often, citizens do not contact the police with information that could help solve a crime. It may be due to fear, they believe if they reveal their own identity then they would expose themselves or their families to acts of retaliation by the criminal. In most of these instances, these citizens will not come forward with information. In order to share information with law enforcement, they must be assured they will be provided complete anonymity. If the police fail to provide this anonymity, the result is usually the loss of vital information due to the lack of willingness to cooperate.

In other instances, citizens may not come forward with information because they lack the knowledge of how or whom to contact in the law enforcement’s organization. Once these citizens “work up the courage” to contact law enforcement, they must be assured that whoever they talk to will be interested in, and respond to whatever information they relay. Otherwise, these citizens may call in once with information but certainly will not call a second time if they are shuffled and transferred from one person or department to another.

The Crime Stoppers concept provides a method of overcoming these limitations and involving citizens in the solution of crime. Through the Crime Stoppers program, citizens who have knowledge of a specific crime are encouraged either for civic or monetary reasons to come forward to police. Through this program, the public is reminded that the police need their assistance to make the community a safer place to live. Crime Stoppers allows any citizen coming forward with information to remain completely anonymous. In this way, the citizen is assured that their identity will be protected and that any useful information relayed will be utilized. To effectively integrate the knowledge of the public, Crime Stoppers must also receive the support of the various representatives of the media such as television, digital, radio, and print.

Contribute to your community through Crime Stoppers

How can I help Crime Stoppers in New Brunswick?

Donate

Support Crime Stoppers by making a donation. Donate now.

Volunteer

Volunteer your time and join our board of directors. Become a volunteer.

One Officer’s Vision: How the Crime Stoppers concept began.

Crime Stoppers was the idea of a man named Greg MacAleese, a police officer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. After helplessly watching Albuquerque’s rising crime rate and seeing the public’s fear of the criminal element, he felt something had to be done to change people’s attitudes towards getting involved. MacAleese knew that for just about every crime, someone other than the offender knew about it and could help law enforcement solve the case. The challenge was to get the right information from the right person at the right time. MacAleese understood the importance of citizen involvement in reporting a crime. The only question seemed to be, “How do you motivate people to get involved?”

His idea took a two-pronged approach:

• To overcome apathy (indifference), cash awards must be offered
• To overcome people’s fear of criminal retaliation, or fear of involvement, it would be necessary to offer anonymity.

Discussions with the Albuquerque Police Department indicated that award money should come from the general public instead of through tax dollars (to this day, Crime Stoppers is a civilian-run organization). It was suggested that a civilian Board of Directors be created to lend integrity to the program. It was also decided that awards would only be paid after information received by Crime Stoppers had produced a tangible result.

Crime Stoppers pays awards based on arrest (not conviction) of the person responsible for a particular crime. This speeds up payment of awards to tipsters and assures that law enforcement agencies are well on their way to achieving a successful conclusion to the crime.

Crime Stoppers proves successful

The first call on September 8, 1976, quickly turned doubters into believers.

Other communities, hearing of Albuquerque’s success, soon adopted the Crime Stoppers concept. They quickly learned that the program could also be effective for them. The first Canadian Crime Stoppers program was established in Calgary, Alberta in 1982.

The Crime Stoppers program is a three-way partnership involving private citizens, the media, and the police community. Getting people to care is what Crime Stoppers is all about.

Since 1976, more than 1,500 Crime Stoppers programs have been established worldwide in 26 countries.

Province just got a little safer: Crime Stoppers comes to New Brunswick

In February 1985, a motion was passed at a meeting of the New Brunswick Association of Chiefs of Police that called for the implementation of a Crime Stoppers program in central New Brunswick. With the approval of the provincial Attorney-General, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police set up a mini-task force, comprised of two RCMP officers and one Fredericton Police Force officer.

These people began studying the Crime Stoppers program as a whole and went on to establish chapters in the Woodstock, Fredericton, Oromocto, Minto, and Chipman areas of New Brunswick. Several private citizens throughout the province volunteered to help and they became part of an organization that would later be known as N.B. Crime Stoppers, Inc./ Échec au crime N.-B. Inc.

Four local/regional Boards (chapters) were formed. While staying independent, they would remain under the umbrella of the parent organization, N.B. Crime Stoppers. These four boards were: Western N.B. Crime Stoppers; Capital Region Crime Stoppers; Oromocto Crime Stoppers (later renamed Oromocto-Gagetown); and Grand Lake Area Crime Stoppers. In the past 38 years, the program has grown to encompass all of New Brunswick. As of March 2023, 14 local/regional Chapters make up N.B. Crime Stoppers Inc., with approximately 300 volunteers. Many of these people have been members since the program’s inception in 1985.

Provincial Board of Directors

The Provincial Board of Directors of N.B. Crime Stoppers, Inc. is responsible for the financial matters of the organization; the day-to-day operations of the program; and paying the operating expenses. The Board also provides ongoing training and support to all 14 regional chapters, as well as the distribution of promotional materials to volunteers, schools, and law enforcement agencies. Various committees oversee corporate fundraising, public relations, web and social media operations, legal issues, policies, and promotions.

Twice per year, the 14 local/regional boards (and their law enforcement coordinators) meet with the parent board (and the Provincial Coordinator) for a provincial meeting. New ideas, operational issues, and correspondence are discussed. At an Annual Training Conference, members of N.B. Crime Stoppers examine the program’s operations during the past year and are trained on how to manage their Regional Chapters more efficiently. The Provincial Executive is elected by the general membership and serve two-year terms.

Provincial President: Jennifer Kelly-Barnett

Provincial Coordinator: Sgt. Julie Goulet

Department of JPS Provincial Coordinator: Sgt. Shawn Farrell

Digital Media Services: Mark J. LeBelle