If you receive a traffic citation in Gluckstadt, you will now notice there is a $2 fee added to the ticket cost. This amount will go towards Gluckstadt being part of Crime Stoppers of Central Mississippi.
Crime Stoppers is an organization that people can reach out to if they have information about a crime but want to remain anonymous.
“It can be any crime – drugs, violent crime, auto burglaries, murders, or anything – it’s a way for them to report that crime and remain completely anonymous,” Gluckstadt’s Sergeant Stephen Tucker said. “It also has an option where, if the information that they provide leads to an arrest, they can get paid up to $2,500.”
The $2 fee on traffic citations goes to the organization of Crime Stoppers itself to help fund it and also provide money to pay for a credible tip.
“If you come to us and report a crime, the first thing we’re gonna do is get your information because we have to, so the biggest benefit for the public is if they want to remain anonymous, they can do it this way,” Tucker said.
Crime Stoppers takes the information the individual wants to provide and distributes it out to the appropriate law enforcement. Every participating agency has a Crime Stoppers representative that the tips are fed through. For Gluckstadt, this representative is Tucker.
“Let’s say you want to call in and you have information on auto burglary, but you want to remain anonymous because maybe it’s your cousin and you don’t want to start a family drama,” Tucker said. “You can call Crime Stoppers, give them the information, and you remain totally anonymous. Crime Stoppers reaches out to me, provides me that information, and I make sure it gets to the people it needs to get to, whether it be myself or investigations or narcotics or whoever.”
While Tucker is new to Crime Stoppers himself, he worked narcotics and violent crime for seven years for the Madison Police Department before coming to Gluckstadt. He said the Marshal Service that serves felony warrants relies heavily on Crime Stoppers tips.
“I have had people work for me in the past that have reported to Crime Stoppers, and I know they’ve gotten the same reward money – the only reason I know that’s because they told me,” Tucker said. “It is a huge benefit for the city because it’s just one more avenue for people to be able to report crime. I don’t think there can ever be too many of those.”
