Candice Williams

The Detroit News

Crime Stoppers of Michigan announced Monday the organization experienced a 7 percent increase in successful tips in 2015 compared to the previous year.

The 197 tips led to 209 arrests, 195 for felonies, officials said.

“The community is made safer when everyone works together to put criminals behind bars,” according to a statement. “Setting this new record proves that.”

Overall, tips were up by 8.6 percent in 2015, officials said.

Nearly $90,000 was awarded to tipsters.

This is the third year of increased success for the organization that operates in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston, Washtenaw, Genesee, Monroe and St. Clair counties. During that three-year period, 19,362 anonymous tips led to 600 arrests and tipsters were awarded $259,455.

Among the organization’s success stories in 2015 was the solving of the homicide of a pastor, the sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl in Detroit and a hotel armed robbery in Harper Woods. Tips also led to the shutdown of a narcotics operation in Ypsilanti, officials said.

The organization credited an increase in tips with the high visibility of its faith-based We Speak Up sign campaign that began Sept. 23. One hundred signs were installed in front of churches across Metro Detroit.

“We have another fifty churches awaiting signs and the list continues to grow,” officials said.

During the period of Sept. 23 through Nov. 30, tips were up 25 percent from the same period in 2014.

The organization’s Project Safe Campus program continued to work to solve or prevent incidents including those involving drugs, weapons and bullying in schools.

cwilliams@detroitnews.com

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