The Provincial Government, through the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General is providing Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers with $200,000 to revive its previously successful “Guns and Gangs” advertising campaign for a one-year period.
The new campaign will be designed to re-engage the public and urge everyone to save lives and keep the community safe by anonymously providing information that can help police make arrests in connection with gang and illegal weapons crimes.
The appeal is aimed especially at those in a position to anonymously provide information from personal connections they may have with gang members. They may want to do the right thing, but don’t want to be identified as informants.
“We want to strongly emphasize that any information you give to Crime Stoppers is totally anonymous. If you ‘See Something, Say Something’. We only want your information so we can pass it to police, we do not want to know who you are,” says Linda Annis, Executive Director of Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers. “With the current rise in gang crime, police need your information more than ever to keep us all safe. We’re pleased provincial funding has become available to increase awareness about providing anonymous tips at a time when we’re seeing gang violence on the rise.”
During the period covering Crime Stoppers’ previous “Guns and Gangs” advertising campaign, based on its #World Without Crime ads, 145 people were arrested for gang and/or illegal weapons offences, and 219 guns were seized based on anonymous tips provided.
Since the previous campaign began, anonymous gang and gun crime tips to Crime Stoppers have grown to account for 13 per cent of all tips received, up from six percent at the start.
“Police from all jurisdictions across the Lower Mainland are focused on ending this cycle of gang violence,” said Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General. “We need members of the public who have information to come forward and help police bring those responsible for the violence to justice. That is why we are proud to partner with the Federal Government through the Gun and Gang Violence Action Fund to provide support for this new Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers campaign.”
Crime Stoppers is not the police. All tips from the public are kept anonymous and forwarded directly to the authorities for investigation.
“Police across the region last week committed to using all the resources they can to address the renewed gang crime we’ve all seen in the news. We hope renewing our awareness campaign will once help convince anyone with information to contact us anonymously through our “P3” Crime Stoppers reporting app, online or by phone,” Annis added.
