These days it seems like there’s an app for everything, and the Minneapolis Police Department is getting in on the fun.
The Minneapolis Police Department is making it easier for the public to report crimes anonymously through a handy smartphone app called MPD Tips. Minneapolis Police Cmdr. Scott Gerlicher said the app allows people to quickly and anonymously alert police to a crime, which helps keep the community safer.
“We need the community’s help to solve these serious crimes that are taking place,” said Gerlicher.
Gerlicher said they’ve already received more than 3,000 tips through the alert system, and the tips are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“On any given day, we might get anywhere from five to 10 tips per day,” Gerlicher said.
If you don’t have a smartphone, or you simply don’t want to download the app, you can still report crime anonymously by texting details of the incident to 847411.
How It Works
MPD Tips, also known as Tips 411, allows officers to view the tips in real time and assign an urgency rating to each tip. Police can then decide how they wish to handle the situation
“They all get triaged here, so we look at every single tip that comes in and we decide who would be best to handle the follow up on this,” said Lt. Jeff Rugel.
The app sends the tips through a program that scrambles the sender’s phone number, meaning tipster will remain anonymous. Although police don’t have access to the tipster’s number, a reply feature allows police to send messages back to the original sender should they need collect more information about an incident.
“What Tips 411, what that company does is anonymize it and sends it to us in a group email that we all get here,” Rugel said. “So we’re then able to go into our web browser and look at the contents of the tip.”
Cmdr. Gerlicher said the app has helped police solve a wide range of cases, from thefts to drug cases to burglaries. They are hoping to spread the word about the app in hopes that it may convince witnesses of more serious crimes like shootings or homicides who are reluctant to come forward to speak up about what they saw.
“Those shootings, those homicides that’s where typically people seem to be more reluctant to come forward with information,” Gerlicher said. “So here’s a way they can come forward completely anonymously.”
Gerlicher concluded that the app is not designed to replace 911. If a person needs an officer’s assistance immeadiately, they should still dial 911.
