At 2 PM today in City Hall, Council Member Bonnie E. Russell will be proposing a “Text a Tip Program” to the Police Commissioner for consideration. Russell hopes to implement this program as a secondary means of an anonymous tip line to generate more information from previously reluctant witnesses and therefor solve more crime in the city. While all the details have not been formatted as of yet, the proposal is based upon the Boston Police Departments success with this program in their own district.
The tip line will still be anonymous as the phone numbers connected with the text messages appear as a blocked number. The tip line number may be the same as the call-in, a number that residents are already familiar with. Anyone with information can type the word “tip” into their cell phone and in return, they will receive a message back asking for details. Paul Wolf, Esq. Chief of Staff, Buffalo Common Council, says, “Anyone should be able to call regardless of their location. However, for now, the ‘Text a Tip Program’ will be limited to the Buffalo Police Department but will hopefully expand soon after.”
If the proposal is approved, this is good news for residents who abstain from calling because they are fearful of voice recognition. The only catch is that the text messaging feature must be enabled on the cell phone and standard rates may be applied depending on the service provider. For more information regarding the program that is already being utilized by the City of Boston Police Department, www.cityofboston.gov/police/cristop.asp.
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