Chippewa County looking to bring Crime Stoppers to the area

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. (WEAU) -Chippewa County officials are taking several different plans of action to help combat drugs and criminal activity in the area. One of those efforts is starting up Crime Stoppers in the area.

Crime Stoppers is a national organization that Eau Claire County and other counties across Wisconsin have used as a form of crime reporting.

Rose Baier is the Chippewa County Criminal Services Director. She is also a part of the county’s Take a Stand Against Meth Campaign.

“We had conducted about five town hall meetings all throughout the county, getting feedback from the community members on what they thought we needed to do to combat meth,” Baier said.

Baier says the biggest takeaway from the town hall meetings was people not knowing what to look for and how to report drug activity anonymously. That’s where the idea to start Crime Stoppers came in.

“We’re really trying to focus on a county-wide Crime Stoppers organization,” Baier said. “Sometimes it’s easier to get people just from Chippewa, but we really want to get our outlying jurisdictions involved.”

Baier says there would be anonymity when reporting. Crime stoppers utilize three different methods on an app that can be downloaded to your phone. The app also has a feature to text within the app to report a crime.

“It’s called P-3 app that people could download on their phone for free and put a tip in there and it actually has an email version and a web version and also a phone call that you can make that is guaranteed to remain completely anonymous,” Baier said.

Chippewa County Sheriff James Kowalczyk hopes Crime Stoppers will promote more that “see comes, say something” attitude,” Kowalczyk said.

Baier says more than drug-related crimes can be reported.

“Maybe thefts in the area, people casing houses, or just strange vehicles that aren’t supposed to be there. Those types of things,” Baier said.

Baier says passionate Chippewa County residents who are willing to volunteer on the community board are needed to get the ball rolling on Crime Stoppers in the area.

“The community board is really important because they drive the entire Crime Stopper program. They try to promote, market, get funding, help pay rewards,” Baier said.

If you’re interested in learning about the Take a Stand Against Meth Campaign and to find out how to volunteer for Crime Stoppers in Chippewa County, click here.

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