Crime Stoppers program begins

Led by the efforts of Jon Barnwell, chair of Staff Senate and Campus Police sergeant, and Mark Matthews, former chair of the Student Senate university affairs committee, an NC State chapter of Crime Stoppers has been launched.

The program rewards members of the campus community who come forward with information that leads to an arrest.

Barnwell said that he hopes criminals who know the university has a Crime Stoppers program will think, “I’m not going to go to NC State University and commit a crime.”

Crime Stoppers of NC State is made up of five students, three staff members and two faculty members. Matthews is chair of the committee. The committee is a voluntarily organized nonprofit and runs solely on donations from the campus community.

"For it to work, you have to have a cross section of the community," said Barnwell.

The committee decides a suitable reward for the information given if it leads to an arrest. By keeping the distribution of the reward in the hands of a non-partial committee, police investigating the incident can focus solely on solving the crime.

“Crime prevention is a shared responsibility,” said Barnwell.

Crime Stoppers began in Albuquerque, NM in 1976. Today there are over 1000 Crime Stoppers programs across the world.

To contact the Greater Triangle Crime Stoppers, call 226-CRIM(E). The instructions are also available in Spanish.

For more information or to make a donation, please contact Jon Barnwell at 919/515-5963 or Mark Matthews at 919/861-4393.

Posted February 20, 2004

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