Bluegrass Crime Stoppers in Lexington is now offering more reward money for crime tips that lead to arrests. The organization has increased the reward by 50 percent. That means information that leads to an arrest could earn a tipster up to $1,500.. Previously, the reward amount was capped out at a $1,000.
Detective Anthony Delimpo is Crime Stoppers Coordinator for the agency. Delimpo said the reward rate hadn’t been adjusted in 27 years.
“I think we need to pay more, I think it'll increase our tips. It's an old fashioned term, but money talks. It does. And if we want people to reach out to us, we sold ourselves on anonymity and I think that's great, but we also want to pay. We want to be worthwhile. Some of these people that give tips are taking risks by giving information, and the money has to reward the risk,” said Delimpo.
In addition to the increased reward amount, there is a $10,000 initiative to solve homicides that occurred in 2022. Tips that lead to an arrest in those cases could earn up to $2,500. Detective Delimpo said homicide detectives know there are witnesses to these cases.
“And we also know and understand that people are scared to come forward, we get that. Some people don't understand that. We understand that as a police department, we understand it as Crime Stoppers. So this is why we're using this new avenue of $2,500,” said Delimpo.
In addition to the monetary incentive, Delimpo said tipsters remain anonymous.
