CSI President’s update No: 1 - March 2015 Dear Fellow Crime Stopper, It gives me great pleasure to address you directly using our newly designed web site, one of many new things from Crime Stoppers International. Whether you are a Crime Stopper or a supporter in North America, Africa, Europe, Asia Pacific or Latin America and the Caribbean, we hope that you find our progress inspiring. We would be happy to receive your feedback at [email protected] This year has started very well for Crime Stoppers International. We have achieved many things, so many I have chosen just to highlight some of the key ones. The first is our new global web site, that replaced our old site which was tired and in need of an overhaul. Feedback so far has been very positive. If you haven’t already we invite you to review at www.csiworld.org As you well know, Crime Stoppers was founded in the USA in 1976 and Crime Stoppers International was incorporated in New Mexico and remains a registered charity there. In recent times however we have recognized the need to be more global and harness opportunities from other markets. It is for this reason that I am pleased to announce we have established an "Operational Headquarters" in the Netherlands, after signing an MOU with Crime Stoppers Netherlands. This is a great opportunity, and we must acknowledge the support given by our European team in making this happen. This gives Crime Stoppers International “operational capacity and scalability” it has never had before which is something we have been working toward with our Global Law Enforcement partner, Interpol. Late last year, our Vice President Peter Price again represented Crime Stoppers International at the Annual General Meeting of Interpol, and next month I will be attending the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Congress on behalf of Crime Stoppers International. This invitation came at an appropriate time in our organization’s growth, and I am honoured to be representing Crime Stoppers International at this Global Conference. In addition to this we have embarked on a “new venture” for Crime Stoppers International – ‘global crowd funding’. Crowd Funding is a process of raising money from ANY member of the public, anywhere in the world, who identifies with our specific project and our goals and ambitions and has the desire and means to donate. We have signed up with INDIEGOGO, and YES that is their name, and our goal is to raise 50K to develop a Human Trafficking tip system as well as help cover the costs associated with increased tip taking. This project is about HUMANITY and we hope that people from all over the world can help us move forward to support the efforts of our local, national and global law enforcement. You can find further details on this initiative by visiting the link ‘'Ending modern day slavery - a global response'’ In the last two weeks Crime Stoppers International signed a major sponsorship deal with a company that is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange – YPB Systems. This organization is in the anti-counterfeiting business and we look forward to a long and successful partnership. We have also recently signed a MOU with the International Police Training Institute (IPTI). The IPTI is the only management development and mentoring organization which the FBI National Academy Association (NAA) has appointed as authorized agents to provide specialized international police training, executive leadership and support for NAA members based in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia/Pacific regions. Our new relationship with this organization can only help strengthen our ongoing and developing relationships with law enforcement around the Globe. We are also continually looking for revenue streams outside of the "old model” and for this reason we have a number of European grant applications under review, along with working towards support from Global Foundations. It is now a requirement that we find other sources of revenue in order to keep our member fees as low as possible. We hope that maybe one-day soon, our financial self-sufficiency will in turn reduce the financial demands on Crime Stoppers programmes through membership fees. Social Media continues to play a significant role. Evidence of its effectiveness was highlighted a few weeks ago whereby a number of Crime Stoppers programs inclusive of Crime Stoppers New Zealand assisted Australian Police in a case of a young boy who was missing since November 2014. Whilst there is no specific evidence to suggest he was abducted and taken overseas, the Police asked for assistance in a global community appeal, on the basis that we live in an very connected world and Crime Stoppers is UNITED in it’s cause, no matter where you live. Media attention was recently also turned to Crime Stoppers in Canada with a successful result in Eastern Canada that both CNN International and the BBC World News and other International media agencies highlighted. Continuing in the success of the Cape Town, South Africa Conference last year, the 2015 Crime Stoppers International Conference will be held this year in Toronto, Canada, hosted by the Ontario Association of Crime Stoppers. The dates for this year’s event are from 27th September to 30th September 2015. Much more information on this event will be highlighted in future bulletins. A direct link to the Conference website will also be placed on the CSI website. Mark those dates on your calendar and plan to attend what will be a first class learning experience for everyone. In closing of this short update, I truly THANK YOU ALL for helping to keep your community safe, and working with Crime Stoppers International to make OUR world a safer place, as every 14 minutes a crime is solved somewhere in the world, thanks to YOUR work within your community. CRIME knows no boundaries. Sincerely Alexander MacDonald, CPM, MBA President – Crime Stoppers International
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