Rat out your BFF via text message
Text messaging may be truly coming of age via crime prevention programs run by law enforcement agencies which accept crime tips in text message form, adding a new dimension for the tipster.
Police departments across the country have added a new type of technological weapon to their crime-fighting tactics: they are accepting anti-crime tips from members of the public via text message. Long the bastion of teenagers old and young, the text message has become more respectable, at least to the authorities. If you have information that may be of help to the police, it may be possible for you to get it to them using your thumbs and your cell phone, making the crime tipster telephone call a thing of the past.
And it seems to be working, according to an AP story. Boston, for example, was the first big city to heavily solicit crime tip texts from the public. Police there have received more than 1,000 crime-fighting tips since the program started two years ago. Law enforcement officials credit text tips for providing them with key leads in at least four high-profile killings, including: the accidental shooting of Liquarry Jefferson by his cousin; an arson fire that killed two children; the shooting of a Boston teenager on her 18th birthday; and the fatal stabbing of a man during a bar fight.
Law enforcement officials think that there are a number of reasons for the success of such programs. For one, the equipment used by police guarantees complete anonymity for the callers, especially helpful in situations where a tipster could face repercussions from the criminals they are trying to help catch, and provides a safe method for police-tipster interaction. As an added bonus, where young people are concerned, the text message is the preferred form of communications, making it more comfortable for them to get a tip to the police. Whatever the reason, these programs are showing results, adding a public-spirited weapon to the teen texting arsenal, with everyone else allowed along for the ride.
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