One-third of Crime Stop callers give info about guns, gunmen

Jamaica Observer
Monday, April 16, 2001

THE Adminstrators of Crime Stop say the programme received 184 calls during the first quarter of this year, a 14 per cent increase over the same period last year. In addition, more than one-third of the callers gave information relating to illegal firearms and gunmen.

“Crime Stop continues to be a very successful programme,” said a quarterly report from the National Crime Prevention Fund Ltd, which administers the programme under the direction of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica.

The programme promises callers anonymity and does not use the Caller ID or Star 69 features which can breach that confidence.

As an incentive, a reward is paid to callers whose information results in the arrest and conviction of suspects. The payments are also arranged in a manner to protect the caller’s identity.

So far this year, the programme has paid out $92,450 to informants, recovered $3.6 million in property and led to the seizure of just over $7 million in narcotics.

Crime Stop’s first quarter figures also show that 33 persons were arrested arged with various crimes, a 70 per cent increase over the 19 arrests made for the same three months last year.

According to the report, of the 33 persons arrested, 16 were charged with drug-related crimes, seven with possession of illegal firearm, five with possession of stolen motor vehicle, three with murder, one with assault occasioning bodily harm, and one with shooting.

Despite the heavy number of calls (55) giving information about illegal firearms and gunmen, the programme reported that it managed to pull in only seven guns and 51 rounds of ammunition over the three-month period.

In fact, the largest volume of property seized through the programme was cocaine, with 4,945 kilogrammes, followed by 500 ganja seedlings and 389.75 kilogrammes of ganja.

The programme was responsible for the recovery of 10 stolen motor vehicles and four of the five persons arrested in relation to this crime were held in one operation which cracked a ring in Ocho Rios.

Of the 184 calls received over the three months, 161 were ‘first calls’, Crime Stop said, adding that the programme averaged 14 calls per week.
Crime Stop also said the ratio of successes to calls investigate