By Sarah Bowers-Peter, Program Coordinator
One of the features Crime Stoppers Guelph Wellington (CSGW), and indeed all Crime Stoppers programs, is known for is the Crime of the Week. This is graciously printed in area newspapers who support CSGW and it’s usually located in the front half of the publication, around the police report.
You might think, “This crime isn’t from this week? Why is it the Crime of the Week?” Good question. CSGW works with Wellington County OPP, Guelph Police Service as well as other investigative agencies to resolve unsolved crime.
This means in any given month there could be a number of cases that could qualify for the Crime of the Week. Sometimes there are several in one week, other times there are none. This is why we spread them out and highlight each case individually.
This means that a crime that is the Crime of the Week could actually be from weeks, months or years before. Some crimes are historic in nature and are yet unsolved.
Our job is to bring it back to the public’s attention, and hopefully spark a memory that leads to a call to our tip line, 1-800-222-TIPS, or information submitted securely on our website www.csgw.tips.
Now, some might look at the Crime of the Week as something similar to an “Employee of the Month” accolade. We are not “celebrating” these crimes. We are attempting to resolve them in this particular week. If they continue to be unresolved, we will bring them back again in the future.
We have had calls from victims asking us to feature a specific crime, and we explain that we work with police and agency investigators to ensure we have the most up to date information, and don’t compromise an ongoing investigation.
Therefore, we don’t accept crime information for Crime of the Week from non-police/investigator sources.
