Crime Stoppers campaign urges gangsters to snitch on rivals

Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers hopes gangsters will rat each other out for the promise of a $2,000 reward.

The non-profit society has launched a publicity campaign to encourage calls from anyone aware of gang activity — “and even rival gangs,” executive director Linda Annis said on Monday. The campaign “absolutely” encourages gangs to report on criminal activity of other gangs.

“We don’t know who the tipsters are, but we have reasons to believe that we do get rival members of gangs ratting each other out,” said Annis.

She said a similar media campaign that ran in Metro Vancouver 18 months ago requesting tips about illegal guns resulted in 10 times the number of tips about firearms, to 500 in a year, from a typical 50 a year. Dozens of those resulted in charges or arrests, but many more are still being investigated, she said.

The latest campaign is running provincewide. “Crime Stoppers has been a household name for decades, but we want to connect with a new generation who may not know how our organization works,” said Annis.

Tipsters can call by phone, send an email, text message or use Crime Stoppers’ app.

The campaign, which uses a “lighthearted approach ... by showing what life might look like without crime,” will appear on 500 billboards, bus shelters and washroom posters, as well as in digital advertising in restaurants and bars and public service announcements on radio and television.

The messages will also go out on social media, such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and the hashtags for brave posters include #WorldWithoutGangs, #WorldWithoutCrime and #WorldWithoutGuns. The tips can be made anonymously and if the information leads to an arrest, charge, seizure of stolen property or illegal weapons or denial of a fraudulent insurance claim, tipsters may be eligible for up to $2,000, the reward offered for useful information in a homicide case.