Kentucky State Police hope new, improved tip line will help solve crime. How to use it.
Kentucky State Police are trying to make it easier than ever to report and ultimately solve crime.
In November, KSP launched a new and improved website, featuring a simple-to-use tip line that can be accessed on every page of the agency’s website. Tip lines are commonly used by police agencies across the country, and Central Kentucky officials utilize one through Bluegrass Crime Stoppers. KSP had one before, but its use was limited — it was only available through a smartphone app. Tips could also be sent via email, but neither the app nor emails were monitored by officials 24/7. The new tip line is monitored 24/7.
“We are excited to unveil our newly redesigned website, which was created with all Kentuckians in mind,” KSP Commissioner Phillip Burnett, Jr. said in a statement. “We believe the new site will make it easier for the public to interact with us, while also providing a robust recruitment platform for both sworn and civilian careers within our agency.”
How the tip line works
The tip line can be accessed by clicking a gray icon on the bottom right corner of any webpage at kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov.
After clicking on the tip line icon and opening a tip form, users are required to enter details about an incident they have information about. Tipsters have the option to remain anonymous or submit their name and contact information.
There is also the option to upload a photo or video related to the incident in the tip form.
“We want to make sure that it looks good but it’s also functional, and we have not had any complaints on the functionality,” Capt. Paul Blanton, public affairs branch commander with KSP, said in an interview with the Herald-Leader.
Once a tip is submitted, it gets sent digitally to a central location in Frankfort or a local dispatch center. Blanton said if enough information is included in the tip, it will be sent out to the appropriate police department for further investigation.
“People can always call the state police,” Blanton said. “If you don’t know the number to the local post, if you dial 911 from a cell phone, it will direct you to a dispatch center that you can ask for the closest state police post.”
HOW THE NEW WEBSITE CAME ABOUT
Blanton said KSP started efforts to revamp the website a few months ago. The agency partnered with World Wide Technology to help build and program the website.
KSP didn’t have any website programmers on staff, so they relied on the expertise World Wide Technology’s expertise for a lot of the website’s development, according to Blanton.
“A lot of times what we were telling them we wanted to see was just a description of what we wanted to see. It wasn’t even a fully thought out idea for a page,” Blanton said. “They were able to take our vision and work it into the website to make it very functional and to make it very appealing.”
The programmers used advanced analytics to determine what links were most commonly visited among internet users and displayed the top three links on the front page of the website. The links are information about driver’s testing, the sex offender registry and details for applying for a carrying concealed deadly weapons license.
