By Josh Staloch
Staff Writer
GREEN BAY – If you see something, say something.
Facilitating that decades-old advice, Green Bay Area Crime Stoppers (GBACS) has been a piece of the local law enforcement puzzle since it was founded in 1987 in conjunction with a federal crime prevention grant.
The concept, according to GBACS board member and treasurer David Byrnes, is simple: provide an anonymous platform for citizens to report suspicious activity.
“We’re set up for individuals that don’t necessarily want to get involved with the police,” Byrnes said. “They have information about something or somebody and they want to share it, but they don’t want to get involved with reports or having their names mentioned. So it’s a way of giving information while staying anonymous.
How it works
If a citizen sees something he or she thinks is suspicious, that person can make contact with GBACS three different ways.
First, through the 24-hour tip line at (920) 432-7867, where a call center takes the report and then puts it through to GBACS, who will have no information about where the tip came from. Second, the website at 432stop.com and lastly, through the mobile app P3, a mulit-lingual tip system that allows the public to submit tips to Crime Stoppers anonymously.
If a tip is deemed to have enough merit to earn reward money, the call center will match up that tip with a reference number and GBACS issues a check.
GBACS has a full board of directors that includes several members of the law enforcement community, including parole and probation officers.
How it helps
The all-volunteer GBACS, which is not officially affiliated with the police department, handled more than 5500 tips over the last five years. Roughly 75% of the tips received were related to drugs and drug houses in the area.
Twelve years ago, GBACS launched a program called Students Stopping Crime, designed to work as a tool for school resource officers (SROs) and administrators to better deal with things like weapons, drugs, alcohol and bullying on local campuses.
“There have been several incidents over the years where students have been caught with lookalike guns, either air guns or BB guns,” Byrnes said. “There has also been a few actual handguns that, through a tip and through having the SRO check, have been removed from schools.”
GBACS has made a push in recent years to bolster its presence in all local high schools, installing large digital media boards, usually in the commons areas. The boards are there for the schools to use for everyday things like announcements and sports scores, but also feature messages and contact information from GBACS.
“We have two of the boards up on display in our commons area,” De Pere High School Assistant Principal Roger Allen, who is also on the board of directors at GBACS, said. “If our students become aware of something threatening or illegal activity, like vaping or possession of a weapon, they know they can use this anonymous tip line. Having this resource that students are familiar and comfortable with is kind of a first line of defense for us.”
The numbers
Since its inception, GBACS has contributed to 819 arrests and helped clear 792 cases.
The organization paid out more than $50,000 in reward money, helped recover $26,451 worth of property and seize $84,605 worth of drugs.
The fundraiser
GBACS holds one big fundraiser a year in the form of a golf outing at Mid Vallee Golf Course.
The event was created for, and held in honor of, John Michael Kennedy, a young man who was killed by a hit-and-run driver on Jan. 25, 2011. A tip to Green Bay Crime Stoppers led to the arrest of the individual responsible.