Text tips help thumb down criminals
Published 04 July, 2008, 07:44
U.S. Police departments are using an anonymous text messaging service to get crime information from teenagers. They say the younger generation is more likely to use this method to report incidents than dial the usual Crime Stoppers hotline.
More then 100 American communities are accepting text tips at the moment, reports AP.
The internet-based system encodes the sender's phone number before forwarding the message to the police, making it virtually impossible to track.
So far the idea has prove worth while. The first year the system operated in Boston, police received 678 text tips, nearly matching the 727 phone tips during the same period.
Just like callers to a crime hotline, texters can collect rewards for significant information. The money is handed over by banks when a code issued by the police is presented.
The challenging thing for officers dealing with text tips is that they have to learn teen slang to get the message right.
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