BILOXI -- Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers earned recognition Friday as the top program of 2011.
The group was commended for its work to return after Hurricane Katrina. The Coast program, disbanded after the 2005 storm, resumed operation in June 2010 and developed a tip-reporting system to gather anonymous information by text or online.
David McElreath, with the University of Mississippi and a member of the Crime Stoppers board, commended the South Mississippi group Friday at the awards breakfast at the end of the three-day Mississippi Crime Stoppers Training Conference at the IP Casino Resort.
Officials credited Chairman Ronnie Castille and Justin Vickers, supervisory agent in charge of the U.S. Marshal’s Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, for their work, as well as the work of the program’s voluntary board and law enforcement coordinators, to make the program a success.
“The Mississippi Gulf Coast has faced adversity through Hurricane Katrina and losing everything but they have picked themselves up by their bootstraps and within the past few years … they established a working tip line, web text, a fantastic website along with actively publicizing the program through various media sources,” McElreath said. “Because of the hard work of the Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers program, the tips received have helped solve ongoing criminal activity throughout the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and because of the success of the program in such a short period, it has helped deter crime in their area along with surrounding counties and bordering states.”
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