It isn’t only men and women in uniform who can curb crime – anyone is capable of contributing. Nanaimo and District Crime Stoppers proves that, year after year.
January is Crime Stoppers Month and a fine time to recognize the valuable service that the program provides along with its partners in the community, media and the Nanaimo RCMP.
Technology has the potential to make things easier on tipsters. Those who witness crimes don’t have to call the tipline from a pay phone and hang up; it’s simpler than ever to submit information electronically – even via smartphone – and create useful dialogue with law enforcement.
Crime continues to be troubling in Nanaimo and in any community, but there are sometimes indicators that the statistics are moving in the right direction. The stats from last year’s Vital Signs report showed Nanaimo’s crime rate had fallen 6.5 per cent overall. Across Canada, the crime rate has been on an overall decline for two decades.
There is an argument that society nowadays lacks good, old-fashioned values, and while that may be true, we do possess good, modern values. Forms of abuse and violence that may have been socially accepted in past generations are no longer tolerated.
So if we know that crime is intolerable and unacceptable, then it shouldn’t be a stretch to want to be a part of the solution. And that’s where Crime Stoppers comes in. Whatever the stats show, crime happens and will continue to happen. Certain heinous crimes we can only lament from afar and feel powerless, but in our own communities we can make a difference. We can be deputies, in a way – eyes and ears, Block Watchers, Crime Stoppers, the superhero’s sidekick who sometimes, improbably, saves the day.
Hopefully the situation will never arise where we’re anywhere close to a crime. But when it does happen, let’s try to be Crime Stoppers.
