LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Over the course of this Fall season, WHAS 11 reporter Heather Fountaine presents the Crime Stopper series.
Each Wednesday a different cold case in the Kentuckiana area will be covered. We'll shed light on these unique cases, where details may be sparse.
Kentuckiana Crime Stoppers is an organization that has been around for 37 years. The non-profit, headed by Dave Yates, has solved more than 9,000 cases in the area since its inception.
Yates is a retired 30 year police veteran, serving for both LMPD and Jefferson Co. police departments.
Crime Stoppers operates on a anonymous tip based system. The organization relies on people in the community, who may have information on a case that has gone cold.
"Just a small piece of information could be the key that solves a crime," Yates said.
Here's how Crime Stoppers works:
- If you have a tip on a case, call into their 24/7 phone-line 582-CLUE
- Callers then receive a code number for their tip, this code number will ensure anonymity for the caller
- If your tip leads to an arrest for a case, you will receive a cash reward of up to $1,000.
- Finally, a payoff person will meet you at a designated location once they confirm your code number, of course, and you will receive your cash reward.
"We don't have caller ID, we don't have any of the equipment to trace calls, when we say anonymity, we're anonymous, that's what we mean. That's the integrity of the program," Yates added.
Tune-in next Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 11 p.m. for the next installment of the Crime Stoppers series and to learn more about the non-profit organization click here.
Contact reporter Heather Fountaine at hfountaine@whas11.com and follow her on Twitter (@WHAS11Heather) and Facebook.
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