Crime Stoppers Miami Detectives explain how service remains anonymous

Aida Fina-Milian

The detectives Aida Fina-Milian and Barbara Chavez gave further details on how the tipsters remain anonymous while Alex MacDonald, the Global Vice President of Crimestoppers International told us that the Miami team is responsible for calls from Belize and eight other countries.

Aida Fina-Milian, Detective, Miami Dade Crimestoppers

“When that tip line is called from Belize, that call is routed to Miami Dade County, which is where Barbara and I work in the office with a few others. We do take the tips personally; there is no caller ID, there is no recording of the conversations, there is not any information that can be linked to the tipster. Basically, we just want information; we don’t want your name or number or who you are or where you are. We just want the information that may help close the case.”

Barbara Chavez

Barbara Chavez, Detective, Miami Dade Crimestoppers

“There is an incentive for providing information; not only does it clean up the community and help us to make these arrests on these criminals, but the community is also rewarded in the form of cash. They are rewarded once an arrest is made. They don’t have to wait for a conviction, once an arrest is made and the individual is charged, they are eligible for a cash reward.”

Alex MacDonald

Alex MacDonald

“Miami Dade county police department; they answer nine of our national countries telephones. From Bermuda, where I’m from, Bahamas, Barbados, Turks and Caicos, Cayman and they assist us free of charge to get rid of the idea that when people call Crimestoppers a local person answers. Small communities like ours, it’s important that people are aware that Crimestoppers do not answer the call in the local community; we answer calls in Miami Dade County. That has helped us in a way to assure the public that their calls can be completely anonymous.”

According to the Crimestoppers International detectives, callers are only identified by a number, which they can use to follow up on the progress of an investigation.