The Moline Police Department can't do it alone - to fight crime it needs help from city residents. That was the message Monday during a community meeting on crime hosted by Mayor Stephanie Acri.
Interim Police Chief John Hitchcock told the audience of about 25 his officers can't be successful without their assistance.
"Even if you're not sure if it's a real big problem, we want you to come to us because it may be something that may assist us in something you're not aware of. Please feel free to come forward with anything that you think might be an issue."
Hitchcock says it's vitally important that there be a strong partnership between officers and residents.
Moline detective Jon Leach is coordinator of Quad Cities Crimestoppers which has just started offering a smartphone app call p-3-tips, to make it easy to submit tips anonymously. And soon it will be available in some Moline schools.
"One of the problems we have is kids don't want to be seen going to the liaison officer and being labeled a snitch. We're hoping that by putting the p-3 app in the schools, so kids can tip the liaison officer then hopefully we have less violence in there."
Since p-3-tips was introduced this fall, two-thirds of the tips to Crimestoppers are now coming in this way.
Each month directors of Crimestoppers meet, and decide how much to pay each person who's submitted a tip about crime in the Quad Cities.