Hays County Crime Stoppers, Inc.

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of Hays County Crime Stoppers, Inc. is to engage, educate, and empower citizens, communities, businesses, schools, visitors, the media, and law enforcement agencies in Hays County, Texas by deterring crime; encouraging anonymous crime reporting; providing monetary rewards for information that helps law enforcement solve unsolved crimes and arrest wanted fugitives; and helping to make our communities, businesses, and schools safer for all.

This is accomplished through three core goals: ENGAGE—EDUCATE—EMPOWER.

We ENGAGE our citizens, communities, businesses, schools, visitors, the media, and law enforcement agencies through open communication and active listening to the needs of all stakeholders.

We EDUCATE our citizens, communities, businesses, schools, visitors, the media, and law enforcement agencies through the sharing of ideas, proven facts, and concepts that are designed to bring all stakeholders together in understanding how to make our communities safer.

We EMPOWER our citizens, communities, businesses, schools, visitors, the media, and law enforcement agencies to make our communities, businesses, and schools safer places to live, work, learn, and visit.

About Hays County Crime Stoppers, Inc.

On June 17, 1981, San Marcos Crime Stoppers was founded. As Hays County continued to grow, it was recognized that the need to expand the program to cover the entire county was needed. In 1991, San Marcos Crime Stoppers became Hays County Crime Stoppers to better serve the citizens and businesses of Hays County. Since the inception of the program, Hays County Crime Stoppers has assisted in more than 840 arrests, assisted in clearing over 980 cases, approved more than $89,000 in reward money for tips, assisted in recovering over $480,000 in stolen property, and assisted in seizing over $13 million in illegal drugs. This was all initiated by anonymous tips. Hays County continues to be one of the fastest growing counties in the state and nation.

Hays County Crime Stoppers, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization (Tax ID: 74-2202781), and charitable gifts are tax deductible to the fullest extent of federal tax laws.

Structure and Funding of Crime Stoppers

Crime Stopper Programs are organized as a not-for-profit organization. A civilian community board of directors provides direction as to the financial and promotional activities of the program. The board of directors enhances the community involvement aspect, and its function is vital to the program's success.

A community board of directors, made up of persons from throughout the area, meets on a monthly basis to evaluate arrests and to decide on the size of rewards to be paid, up to $1,000. Rewards are then distributed in a private manner to the callers. Callers are eligible for rewards up to $1,000, but, despite this, many callers choose not to collect their rewards.

Does Crime Stoppers Work?

The answer is quite simply yes. Since the start of Crime Stoppers, many calls have been received resulting in thousands of arrests and the recovery of substantial amounts of property. Calls have included information about murder, robbery, rape, assaults, drug and firearm offenses. Crime Stoppers brings communities, the media, and law enforcement together to make safer places to live, work, and play.

The success of a Crime Stoppers program cannot be purely judged on statistics; however, other benefits have come to notice:

A greater awareness in the community that there is a crime problem.
A willingness by the community to fight back against crime if it is given the opportunity and motivation.
Improved relationships between police, media, and the community.

Crime Stoppers is definitely here to stay. It has been accepted by police as a valid and effective investigative tool and the public, through its overwhelming response, appears to have accepted it as a more palatable alternative to traditional methods of giving information.

Our Business Partners

We want to acknowledge and thank our business partners that we work with daily and help to keep Hays County Crime Stoppers operating.