New County Crimestoppers number on prowl for tips

By Barry Porterfield
Staff Writer
Friday March 25, 2006

It was a casual little brainstorming session that proved fruitful when a few county deputies were recently trying to come up with new ways for them to better combat crime.

What they came up with was fairly simple — utilize an unused telephone line already available to the sheriff’s office and turn it into a Crimestoppers hotline where the public can call in tips about crime throughout the county.

The new hotline now open for business at the Garvin County Sheriff’s Department is 405-238-1145.

“We just started talking about a hotline where people could call in tips anonymously,” Sgt. Chad Hillis said.

“People can call it and report what you’ve seen. We can take that information and run with it,” he said.

“This is just another tool to help us do a better job.”

The hotline is in reality a phone line connected to an answering machine.

All callers have to do is leave a message with information about some type of crime or they can simply let deputies know how to get back with them later.

“This is there for the public if they want to step in and help,” Hillis said.

“If people want to leave their name and number that’s fine, we’ll call them back.

“Remember, this is for any crimes.”

Hillis stresses callers not leaving their names remain anonymous because the hotline machine doesn’t have a caller identification feature.

A look back into the recent past shows how the now new hotline actually came into existence now.

A few years ago the sheriff’s office established a criminal task force with its main focus on illegal drug cases.

County deputies working on that task force utilized the 238-1145 number.

Eventually that task force moved out of the sheriff’s office and under the authority of the district attorney, where it was allowed to continue using the same phone number.

Then in late 2004 that task force was disbanded leaving the number unused at the sheriff’s office ever since.

“When that shut down we still had the phone line. So, we decided it would be perfect to use as our new hotline,” Hillis said.

Residents are reminded this new hotline is not in competition with the Crimestoppers number in use by the Pauls Valley Police Department for years now.

The number for the local department’s Crimestoppers number — also allowing callers to remain anonymous — is 238-7776