Crime Stoppers national training conference coming to Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS — Even though statistics show crime is down on the streets of Indianapolis, the number of tips flowing into Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana is way up.

”There’s been an explosion in the actual tip numbers over the last decade or so,” said Daniel Rosenberg, Director/Coordinator of Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana. “If you looked at our numbers probably up until the late 2000s, you’d be looking at maybe a couple thousand original tips. Now we’re seeing something closer to eight, hopefully nine, ten thousand tips.”

And those tips paid off for detectives looking to close cases in 2023.

”We had about a couple hundred major felony arrests,” said Rosenberg.

Later this week, Crime Stoppers USA will hold its national training conference in Indianapolis, bringing program participants from across the country to share best practices and chart the future of the crime information-sharing program.

”They chose Indiana this year,” Rosenberg said. “I think that’s because we have one of the best programs in the entire nation to come to Indianapolis. “We’re gonna have a couple hundred different programs from all over the country that are gonna be downtown, and the conference is all about celebrating what the program stands for but also all about learning from each other.”

Though the Crime Stoppers 24/7 tip line, mobile app and website make it clear there’s money at stake, Rosenberg said most tipsters turn down rewards, which totaled approximately $10,000 last year.

”95% of the tips we get, there’s a little box they can click on it and it says, ‘I don’t want a reward. I’m not looking for money. I just wanna have a safe place to live.’”

Participants in this week’s conference in Indianapolis will focus on the anonymity given to those neighbors on whom law enforcement leans on to develop leads to solve cases.

”If law enforcement doesn’t have the information, it can’t look in the right direction,” Rosenberg said. ”If you feel it is unsafe to have a police officer at your front door, then call us and we’ll get somebody at least looking in the right direction.”

Crime Stoppers can translate any tip in any language, receives information on cases as far flung as South Bend and Ft. Wayne and has catalogued tips on the Delphi case and cold cases like the Burger Chef Murders .

The conference runs from Friday through Monday at the Westin Hotel.

To get in touch with Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana or to learn more about the agency, click here .

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