HAMPTON, Va. — News 3 reports on local crime nearly every week.
We’ve heard the cries for help from a Norfolk family after a hit-and-run seriously injured their son.
"If you have a conscience of any kind come forward and let us know,” says Ronald Crenshaw, Sr
We’ve also heard from law enforcement after a 10-year-old was shot and killed in Portsmouth.
"If anyone has any video, maybe songs recording, we need any information that we can get about who may have been out there that day,” Detective Gino Jackson with the Portsmouth Police Department.
At the end of these reports, we often ask you to call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP. However, we have learned that many people don’t know what the Crime Line is or how it works, despite it being a crucial tool in solving crimes.
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Crime Line is a nonprofit organization run by citizens that collects anonymous tips. If those tips help police, you can get reward money.
“Crime Line is not a government-sponsored entity. It’s not another division of the Sheriff's Office or the Police Department. Crime Line is strictly run by local board of civilians,” says Captain Tommy Potter with the Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Office.
Citizens run the boards, businesses fund the tips, law enforcement investigates, and local journalists share the story.
In fact, I serve on the Crime Line’s regional board along with Captain Potter.
“My job as a coordinator for Crime Line is to vet those tips to find out which tips need to go to our investigative unit,” he says. “We'll never ask for your name, we'll never ask for your phone number. There are very strict guidelines that all of our boards agree to adhere to, and we do that to protect those tipsters.”
You can call 1-888-LOCK-U-UP or download the P3 Tips app.
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“When you log into the P3 app, you're going to be asked to pick a locality,” Potter says. "Then it's a series of drop-down menus."
Captain Potter submitted a “test tip” to show what happens next.
"Within 30 seconds, I got an alert on my phone that there was a new tip in P3. Here's the information that we got- I was told there was a reporter in my office."
The tip included information and a picture and I was given a generic number. The P3 portal also gives people an opportunity to chat anonymously with the Crime Line coordinator. That’s also where they will be notified if they have received a reward.
The generic number is not tied to a phone number or person – and that’s the whole point.
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“I also think that if people know that it's confidential, they're more apt to tell you the truth,” Potter says.
In 2023, tips to Crime Line helped solve more than 300 cases and local boards approved more than $57,000 worth of rewards with close to $29,000 not getting claimed.
"At the end of the day, this is what it's all about -- putting out crimes that have occurred so that we can make an arrest to make our community safer,” Potter says.
You can submit a tip by calling the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP or by downloading the P3Tips app.
