CRIME IS AN ever-present concern in today’s world, but one organization has found a key to combating it. Greater Baton Rouge Crime Stoppers offers cash rewards in exchange for anonymous information about crimes. Since 1982, Crime Stoppers has helped solve more than 12,739 felony crimes. That’s the equivalent of 1.6 felonies each and every day for the last 34 years.

This independent nonprofit works with media, citizens and law enforcement to address crime prevention and crime-solving concerns. Crime Stoppers targets a wide range of serious offenses, from burglaries, murders, rapes and fugitives to campus crimes, cyberbullying, human trafficking and the illegal drug trade.

Why does this program work?

“Often when people have information, they don’t want to get involved,” says Sid Newman, executive director of Greater Baton Rouge Crime Stoppers. “Historically, people don’t report what they know to law enforcement out of fear of retaliation or apathy.”

Crime Stoppers eliminates these issues by ensuring that every tipster remains anonymous. Anyone can contact Crime Stoppers anonymously by calling 344-STOP (7867). They can also text CS225 plus their message to CRIMES (274637). Also, Web messages can be sent via the website crimestoppersbr.com.

“Our goal, first and foremost, is to protect the identity of the caller,” Newman says. Crime Stoppers will never ask anyone for their name. Instead, callers are issued a code number. Callers needn’t worry about being identified through other means, either.

“We have no way to identify anyone. Our phone system has no track and trace system or caller ID. Our records cannot be subpoenaed. Even if we do get called into court to testify, we cannot reveal our callers’ identities because we do not know who they are.
“In 34 years of operation, no one’s identity has ever been revealed.”

After passing along a tip, callers are asked to stay in touch with Crime Stoppers. If their information results in an arrest, recovery of stolen property or confiscation of illegal narcotics, they become eligible for a cash reward of $50 to $5,000.

“Sometimes the tip we get is that little piece of the puzzle that turns out to be the master piece,” Newman says.

All payments are distributed at a drive-thru lane of a bank using the code number system to ensure that callers remain anonymous throughout the process.

“We are the only organization—public or private—that is allowed to pay rewards without identifying the recipient,” Newman notes.

Does it work? The numbers say it best.

In 2015 alone, Crime Stoppers of Greater Baton Rouge helped solve 406 felony crimes. Since its inception, this organization has aided in the recovery of over $13 million in stolen property and the confiscation of $18 million in illegal narcotics. All told, it has paid out more than $1.9 million in cash rewards.

Crime Stoppers relies on its media partners to publicize crimes and encourage citizens to come forward. They include WAFB-TV, The Advocate, Guarantee Broadcasting, 107.3 talk radio and WJBO radio. Crime Stoppers also works with federal, state and local law enforcement in an eight-parish area. Some of these outstanding men and women were recently honored at Crime Stoppers’ first annual awards luncheon.

Crime Stoppers is also in alliance with organizations such as Campus Crime Stoppers, The South Burbank Initiative, Crime of the Week, Most Wanted Fugitives and PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act.)

“Crime affects all of us—directly or indirectly,” says Newman. “It is not just a police problem anymore. It is a social problem. If you know something, Crime Stoppers is the safest way to say something, and you can also earn a cash reward.”

“We have evolved past being a traditional value added reseller (VAR) of hardware products so that we can truly consult with customers in a boutique fashion and build the solution they need, and deliver, manage and support the solution anywhere in the world,” says Chief Marketing Officer Ned Fasullo. “We are a company that focuses on the customer’s business outcomes.”

At the core of the transition has been the GDS approach to solving customer business issues, something Fasullo calls the “3 C’s approach,” which includes Consolidation, Convergence and Cost Reduction. GDS has acquired a sizeable staff of technicians, project managers and solution architects to take the approach of something like a boutique consultancy firm to design and deliver hybrid networking, cloud communications and managed services. That way, Fasullo says, customers can look to GDS to solve their real world problems instead of just selling them products.

In 2015, GDS opened its new corporate headquarters in Lafayette, adjacent to its established commercial satellite teleport and a Gen2 modular data center at Laser Lane in the LEDA Northpark Technology Center. But GDS hasn’t stopped there. In 2015, GDS acquired Lockport-based MidSouth Technologies, a company that provides communications and other technologies to the offshore energy industries. The acquisition created a GDS office and warehouse right in the heart of the Louisiana oil and gas activity.

For its efforts in 2015, GDS was ranked No. 2 on the “Fast Twenty” list of the “Top Teleport Operators of 2015” by the World Teleport Association, a trade association focusing on satellite communications. The “Fast Twenty” ranks teleport-operating companies based on their revenue growth from year to year in their most recent fiscal years. Fasullo says the recognition shows that GDS displayed growth in revenue, putting the company in an elite status against competitors who are large publicly traded companies. GDS was also named to the “Top Global Independent Operators” list by WTA, which Fasullo says underscores that GDS has designed a complex and cost-efficient infrastructure for delivering services via satellite to both stationary (fixed) customers and customers with moveable assets. CRN Magazine also rated GDS as one of its “Elite 150” companies in North America for managed IT services.

The final phase of the transition for GDS will be to relaunch its website in 2016, giving it a facelift while transitioning content to being more customer-service focused. Fasullo says it will display a vast global network of possibilities.

“We are able to create a private, secure network that delivers the services and provides infinite scale to the customer,” Fasullo says. “We actually take the same approach to all of our customers with terrestrial service needs by partnering with major backbone providers throughout North America and the world.”