{"id":19592,"date":"2018-01-19T21:49:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-20T02:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19592"},"modified":"2018-01-19T21:49:00","modified_gmt":"2018-01-20T02:49:00","slug":"crime-stoppers-focuses-on-transnational-organized-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/crime-stoppers-focuses-on-transnational-organized-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Crime Stoppers focuses on transnational organized crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

International borders used to be a buffer against many forms of organized crime, but with the growth of social media and even Bitcoin, this is quickly becoming a theme of the past.
\nJanuary is Crime Stoppers Month and, here in York Region, the organization which allows persons to provide anonymous tips to solve crimes is highlighting the prevalence of transnational organized crime in our community.
\nThe continued increase in the
\n number of human trafficked individuals, along with the infiltration of contraband and counterfeit goods which present health and economic threats, often under the direction of organized crime groups, and the growing threat of cyber-crimes on businesses are setting off alarm bells, says Crime Stoppers.
\nAnd no community is immune.
\n\u201cTransnational crime includes anything from terrorism to international money laundering,\u201d says Constable Peter Dunn of Crime Stoppers York Region. \u201cThey are using all sorts of methods to dupe people out of money and borders no longer stop them from doing this because people can call up from the other side of the world and, through identity theft, create identification that can be used for illegitimate acts through international fraud schemes.\u201d
\nSuch schemes, he says, include people calling to tell you your child is in a South American jail and needs $1,000 wired immediately, and any variety of scenarios.
\n\u201cThis effects everybody in York Region, Canada and the world,\u201d he says, adding the cyber-currency Bitcoin is adding a newer dimension to transnational organized crime. \u201cBitcoin itself is not a crime, but what it is used for is a crime. Different types of crime trends can touch and adversely affect everybody because criminals are no longer impeded by borders.\u201d
\nTo this end, Crime Stoppers is raising awareness that their anonymous tip system is firmly in place to help bring these crimes to justice, and it can simply be a matter of picking up the phone and making a call, sending a text, or logging onto a secure website.
\n\u201cCrime Stoppers is a great avenue that allows people to maintain anonymity but also allows them to do the right thing by contacting Crime Stoppers to let them know this is happening,\u201d says Dunn. \u201cPeople probably think the Police are running it [but] Crime Stoppers is run by a board of civilian volunteers from the community. They own the Crime Stoppers information. They allow us to utilize that information under some protocols. They give it to us providing that we follow\u2026the guidelines. We then disseminate this information to the respective police agency because if it is a tip on homicide, it goes to the homicide unit. If it is a tip on drugs or a meth lab, it goes to drugs and vice; if it is a tip on someone drinking and driving it goes to the traffic enforcement unit.
\n\u201cIt is strictly anonymous. We don\u2019t know who the person is when they call us, we don\u2019t know who they are when they text us. We have no way of knowing who they are, nor quite frankly, do we want to know who they are. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any mistrust about how Crime Stoppers works, I just don\u2019t think people necessarily understand how it works.\u201d
\nCrime Stoppers raises awareness not only in the month of January but throughout the year, including several in-school initiatives to underscore the importance of the organization to students. Not only does it go a long way to illustrate how to do the right thing, but it can be a valuable tip line for students to report what they suspect to be a crime, any type of bullying, or, in the words of Dunn, \u201cpicking on people because of their sexual orientation.\u201d
\nAnyone looking to report a crime through Crime Stoppers can do so by calling 1-800-222-TIPS, leaving an anonymous tip online at www.1800222tips.com or by texting your tip to CRIMES (274637) starting with the word YORK.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International borders used to be a buffer against many forms of organized crime, but with the growth of social media and even Bitcoin, this is quickly becoming a theme of the past. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-560","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 08:36:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}