Criminals put on notice: Crime Stoppers on duty

Published 2:05 am Thursday, February 17, 2011

By By EDWIN MODLIN II
edwin@wdnweb.com
Staff Writer

BATH – Beaufort County Crime Stoppers, which played a key role leading to arrests in a murder in Bath last year, presented a Crime Stoppers sign to the Town of Bath during the Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday.
Bill Davis, chairman of Beaufort County Crime Stoppers, said Crime Stoppers is a nonprofit organization that helps fight crime by encouraging people who may have information about crimes to provide that information to Crime Stoppers, which passes it on to law-enforcement agencies.
Davis said tips originating from Campus Crime Stoppers at Northside High School were instrumental in leading to the arrests of three people who were charged with murdering Leonard Alfred Willson III on Oct. 7.
Davis said that after the arrests, Crime Stoppers coordinator Karen Ball and Nadine Schwab, a Crime Stoppers board member, made a presentation to a community group in Bath to foster community awareness of and explain the Crime Stoppers program.
As a result of their presentation, Bath residents donated more than $400 to Crime Stoppers.
“To show our thanks, we want to present the first two signs to the people of Bath,” Davis said.
Bath Mayor Jimmy Latham conveyed his and the Town of Bath’s thanks to the sheriff’s office for its response to Willson’s murder.
Davis said Crime Stoppers attempts to combat three major problems faced by law enforcement in collecting information about crimes: fear of reprisal, apathy and reluctance to get involved.
“We do this by offering anonymity and rewards when information provided leads to an arrest,” he said.
Crime Stoppers is trying to increase awareness about its program by displaying signs in areas with high visibility by the public.
“We encourage participation and community ownership of our program,” Davis said. “These visual reminders will promote Crime Stoppers and identify you as a supporter of a nationally recognized anti-crime organization.”
Davis encourages Beaufort County businesses, business associations, government agencies, civic groups and fraternal organizations to join the program.
“Our goal was to broaden our reach, become more responsive to the needs of the community and to assist all organizations in making Beaufort County a safer place to live, work and enjoy,” he said. “We do that with interaction with different community groups, schools, ethnic groups, churches.”
Davis said he grew up in a 14-story “projects” site in Bronx, New York, and would have loved to have been able to have an organization like Crime Stoppers when he was there.
“I wish, while I was growing up, that there was a program that paid for tips on crime because I could’ve put myself through college with what I saw on a regular basis,” he said. “What we do in Beaufort County is try and get kids and adults to be more friendly with police and law enforcement in order to solve crimes.”
Davis said tips provided to Crime Stoppers are used to as pieces of a puzzle that is put together in an effort to solve a crime.
“The tips that came in to law enforcement that helped solve the murder in Bath last year came through tips from Crime Stoppers,” Davis said.
Davis said Crime Stoppers board members are not law-enforcement officers. However, there are law-enforcement liaisons.
Ball, an investigator with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, is one of the liaisons working with Crime Stoppers.
Ball told the Bath audience about an incident in which a driver evading authorities flipped the vehicle he was driving, resulting in people dying.
“He left the vehicle and the people to die and left,” she said. “They (law-enforcement officers) couldn’t find him for about a month. Crime Stoppers kept getting tips on him and finally found him in a motel making meth. So, we got him for homicide and making meth.”
Ball said by the time the man was arrested, Crime Stoppers had paid more than $800 for tips leading to his arrest.