‘Money talks.’ Why Lexington investigators are offering more cash for tips on homicide cases
Bluegrass Crime Stoppers is using its “healthy budget” to offer more money for people who provide tips that lead to arrests in homicide investigations, officials announced Monday.
In a press conference, representatives with Bluegrass Crime Stoppers and Lexington police said they are increasing tip rewards to $2,500 for information which leads to the arrest and closure of a homicide case. The rewards apply to 2022 homicides and the initiative will carry on for the next three months.
Last year Crime Stoppers solved eight homicides with tips that came in through their anonymous hotline, according to Katina May, director of Bluegrass Crime Stoppers. Lexington police have nine open homicide investigations for 2022, according to police data.
“We are very excited and are hoping that we get some traction to help our police department out,” May said. “They are struggling with limited resources and everything else that everyone else has felt through this pandemic.”
They not only hope this will help solve open cases, but give closure to victims, and help the community at large.
‘More of an incentive’
This is the first increase in reward money the department has offered for useful information on homicide investigations. Lexington police detective Anthony Delimpo said ultimately, “money talks” when it comes to helping solve a case.
“People are scared, we get that. People are scared to come forward. When they have seen something or know something, all of that information is pieces to the puzzles,” Delimpo said. “We are trying to give more of an incentive for people to come forward.”
May said this increase was feasible through a “healthy budget” the Crime Stoppers non-profit now has. There’s a budget of about $90,000 for this fiscal year. This is in part due to their most successful golf scramble fundraiser, which raised $25,000.
“We have come off the biggest fundraiser and have a substantial budget and we can put that money back into the community,” May said. “The police department is facing the limited resources that we are, that the community at large is facing, and we just wanted to assist in any way we could. We kind of have to look at what we can do to make an immediate impact.”
‘We have seen it work’
Delimpo said other cities have similar crime stopper programs and have raised their tip rewards with success. May added that with a more substantive budget, the Lexington group is now able to do the same thing.
“We did increase rewards for crime of the week several years back. But what we were facing at that time was just a limited budget. So we weren’t able to continue that program on,” May said. “Now that we do have a healthy budget, we are raising our awareness. We know how well our program works, and we need to communicate that to the public to let them know this system we have in place, it works and you do remain anonymous and you do get paid this cash.
“We have seen it work. … It’s wonderful when you see it all come together.”
Anonymous tips can be submitted over the phone by calling 859-253-2020. Tips can also be submitted online at www.p3tips.com. Delimpo said about 85% of tips come in from online sources.
“People don’t know this is an option. There are people out there that don’t know things to help some of these homicides and all kinds of crimes,” he said. “They are aware of it, and if they knew there was an anonymous way to reach out, they would do it, especially to get paid.”
This story was originally published June 13, 2022 at 11:48 AM.
