Latinx-Led Crime Stoppers wins Award For Using Technology To Fight Crime

Crime Stoppers of Flint & Genesee County received an international award for using technology to help solve local crimes.

The organization, led by its director Jule Lopez, uses location-based advertising and public service announcements. It’s Morden way of tracking and solving crime made it the winner of the 2021 Crime Stoppers International Digital Media Award in the category for programs serving 300,000 to 1 million people.

Back in 2019, Flint and Genesee County became the first Crime Stoppers program in the country to utilize “geofencing” technology with OUTFRONT, an outdoor media company. 

If a person is connected to their mobile device and using an app or a website connected to OUTFRONT, and within a two-mile radius of where an unsolved crime took place, they will receive an advertisement on their phone about the unsolved case.

“Do you know who killed me?” reads one advertisement, with a photo, name, and date of death of a victim of an unsolved homicide.

Clicking on the ad takes the individual to a landing page with more information about the specific crime, and a button that would allow them to leave an anonymous tip. 

According to Lopez, there were more than one million mobile device advertisement “impressions,” or views, in the targeted areas in 2020. Additionally, OUTFRONT reported that the program in Flint came in above their benchmarks for clicks and engagement. 

“We are thrilled to have received this award. Our partnership with OUTFRONT has been instrumental in bringing awareness to the community through billboards and now through mobile devices,” said Lopez in a press release.