Friday, December 11, 2009

Texting Crime Tips

One of the problems schools (and the community) have is getting information from people about bad behavior, bullying, or crimes. People with information are often hesitant to give that information up. One nice thing with children in school is that someone will eventually tell. There's almost always one student who will pull the teacher aside and tell them what's going on.

To me, these are brave and courageous kids. They know that if they are "found" out, they could suffer consequences from the other kids, but they take the chance and do the right thing.

"Text-a-Tip" programs are now making it easier to do the right thing. According to a newspaper article by Denise Lavoie (The Associated Press) on November 28, 2009, the text-a-tip program allows people to send anonymous text messages from their cell phones. Since many witnesses are afraid to come forward, these programs are becoming increasingly popular. The messages are sent to a third party server where all identities are removed and an alias is given. The information is then forwarded to police who use it as a lead to start an investigation. The programs have gained popularity in schools where most students don't want to be a snitch. It simply requires application software that most communities are using as part of their Crime Stoppers programs.

Unfortunately, not being a "rat" has its advantages. Today a news article on television (I don't remember which one) asked how Bernie Madoff was doing in prison. It was reported that he is doing fine and has gained the respect of fellow inmates because he has not snitched on any one who was involved in his Ponzi scheme.

For information about the tip management software: http://www.smscrimetips.com/

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