(Memphis) Listen up, students: If you didn’t know it pays to be a good guy, you’re about to find out.
CrimeStoppers is handing out cash to students who report criminal activity going on in their schools.
You can do it completely anonymously and fill your pockets up with cash.
If anyone knows what’s going on inside our schools, it’s the students themselves.
That’s the idea behind a CrimeStoppers program called Trust Pays that is helping to keep weapons off campuses.
“Of our 130 guns (recovered), 29 of them were found in elementary schools. That ought to make everybody think,” said Buddy Chapman, the director of CrimeStoppers.
Since 2006, Chapman says guns, knives and predators have all been taken off the streets because students were willing to tell somebody.
“Anyone you trust and you tell them what you know.”
If students do that, Buddy personally hands the student tipsters the cash.
The bigger the bust, the larger the pay-out. (Typically, its $50 for small amount of marijuana, $100 for a knife, $200 for gun, $1,000 for preventing Columbine, etc.).
Students can report the bad guy and remain anonymous with a text message.
“It goes to a website in Canada and there the identity is stripped out of it and it’s sent to us.”
You text the number 274-637 with the word ‘AWARD.’
You will get a text back with your alias number, which you use to claim your reward money.
Once you have your alias number, reply with your tip.
“When I pay the kids off, I give them a little lecture: ‘Don’t flash it. Don’t lose it. Don’t brag about it.’”
Chapman says Trust Pays has helped reduce the number of weapons in schools because students know there is money to be made if you’re working for the good guy.
“You should see the smile and I now have a lot of repeat tipsters.”
