The Indianola Police Department is offering a new way to combat crime throughout the city.
Tip411 is an app that is available in the Google Play Store and iTunes App Store.
The application is a cellphone-and-web-based program that allows the public to submit anonymous tips, view alerts on the Indianola PD Tip Facebook page and create an anonymous two-way conversation with an officer from their smartphone.
The local administrator of the app is Brittany Conrod. She explained to the board of aldermen on Monday that there are three ways someone may submit an anonymous tip.
Option one: they may submit a tip via text message to the Indianola Police Department. Anyone may text from their mobile device to 847411 with the keyword TIPIPD.
Option two: anyone may download the Indianola Police Department mobile app (Indianola PD).
Option three: use the online form at https://tip411.com/tips/indianolamspd/new. After submitting a tip using the web service the user will be assigned a six-digit code with numbers and letters. That will be their anonymous ID to log back into the system.
Anyone may also sign up for alerts on the website at https://www.citizenobserver.com/signup?agency_id=1311.
Indianola Police Chief Ronald Sampson said, “We have some push cards. We are going to start pushing them out at the stores and place them at city hall and municipal court.”
This is a non-emergency app; tips may not be viewed until the following day.
Conrod and another colleague will be attending a Crime Stoppers conference in October.
Sampson said, “We are hoping to get good momentum and good information.”
Sampson said that the Indianola Police Department believes that the public is their greatest fighting resource and hopes the citizens will use tip411 to share information.
The board also approved that the Indianola Police Department will be getting new radios under a memorandum of understanding with Mississippi Wireless Communication.
