Thursday, June 11, 2009

What Can We Do? Here’s One Answer

“What can we do to help police?” That’s a question I hear from St. Louisans often at community meetings. While there are certainly those people out there who don’t necessarily think of police as their friends, don’t let those people deceive you—-the majority of people in our city want to help the police prevent and solve crimes—they just don’t know how to do it. And it’s a tough question. There is no magic solution. It’s hard work. It takes time and an immense amount of effort. It takes people working together. It takes programs, education, parenting, neighbors reaching out to neighbors, job training, dedicated police officers, tough prosecutors, stiff penalties—the list is endless. It takes people who are willing to spend weeks, months and years working to achieve a crime-free society. I wish there were more people who could make that commitment but realistically, when most people hear that it takes such effort, they become discouraged. However, there is one thing you can do that will help police immensely and I must admit, this one thing isn’t some groundbreaking innovation. It’s this: when you know anything at all about a crime that’s been committed, call us. This week, our homicide investigators did an amazing job cracking a tough case, thanks in part to YOU. You called us. Tips lead to information that can help us solve cases and ultimately, get criminals off the street. This is what we want to happen in every case and with your help it can. You may think what you saw, thought you saw, heard or thought you heard was minor. That minor detail may be the one missing piece in our investigation. If there is concern about getting involved, remember that Crimestoppers is completely anonymous. From the first phone call to collecting reward money when applicable, the person on the other end of the phone never knows who you are. So what can you do to help us? There are a million different answers and here’s just one of them. Call us. Crimestoppers is 1-866-371-TIPS. You won’t just be helping the police. You’ll be helping all of St. Louis and we’ll all be better because of it.