NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — New Yorkers who provide information to the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline can now receive a reward of up to $3,500, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday.
The Crime Stoppers program currently offers rewards of up to $2,500 for information that leads to arrests or indictments in violent crimes such as murders, robberies and shootings.
However, the NYPD notes that the hotline has received fewer and fewer calls throughout 2021, and the program will be boosting it's maximum reward by $1,000 to encourage people to help.
"For so many New York City families, that would make a big difference. Here's an opportunity to keep people safe, to help us solve a crime, to protect the whole community and also be rewarded for, in a very, very meaningful way," the mayor said at his Monday press conference.
NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison says the Crime Stoppers program is vital to keeping crime low and communities safe.
"It's a vital program it really is, and it helps our investigators get leads into some of the cases, which helps solve cases, which helps bring people to justice, which helps make New York City safe," he said.
Since the hotline was launched in 1983, New Yorkers that have called the hotline have helped solve over 53,000 cases in the five boroughs, according to the NYPD's website.
Harrison notes that anonymous tipsters have all been paid for their work in helping to solve the crimes.
The NYPD chief believes that fewer calls are coming in because criminals are using face coverings to help better conceal their identities.
"People are capitalizing on wearing these masks for protection, of course, but they're using it also to commit crimes and I think, unfortunately, because people wearing these masks it's been very difficult for New Yorkers to identify individuals that are committing some these acts," he said.
During 2021, just 568 crime tips have been called into the Crime Stoppers hotline, according to Mayor de Blasio.
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