El Paso Sheriff’s Office creates anonymous tip line
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office has created the “tip411” project, an internet based tool that enables the public to text message an anonymous tip to the sheriff’s office and police departments in El Paso County.
The project will let the police respond back creating a two way anonymous “chat”. The project is supported by the El Paso Police Department Fusion Center, using Urban Area Security Initiative Grant (UASI) funding. image
Reserved exclusively for Public Safety purposes and powered by CITIZEN OBSERVER, a St. Paul, MN company, “tip411” puts a powerful new crime fighting tool into the hands of our community for all ages and demographics. The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office along with Horizon, Socorro & Anthony Police Departments are proud to be part of the national program that benefits over 1200 communities around the country.
This new capability will help citizens play an active role in keeping neighborhoods safer, it will engage a younger demographic in the process, and it will save our agency time and resources. Anyone with a cell phone can now send an anonymous tip to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office & following Police Departments by texting the agencies keyword and the tip information to 847411.
The keywords are as follows: El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Keyword: EPCSO, Horizon Police Department, keyword: HCTXPD, Socorro Police Department, keyword: SOCTXPD, Anthony Police Department, keyword: ATXPD. The El Paso Police Department has been successfully using “tip411” for two years. Their keyword is EPPD.
Anonymous web tips can also be submitted right from the EPCSO website at http://www.co.el-paso.tx.us/sheriff/ .It is 100% anonymous. Citizen Observer’s technology removes all identifying information before the Police Department sees it so there is no way to identify the sender. This capability is a new paradigm for creating safe communities-especially in reaching out to a younger age demographic. When someone feels afraid to come forward, or simply feels like they don’t want to get involved, this can be a great way to pass information on without fear of retribution.
Citizen Observer, a St. Paul, MN company founded in 2000, provides web based alerting tools to law enforcement, education, and public safety agencies over 44 states.
Source: El Paso County Sheriff’s Office
