Regina Crime Stoppers has seen a historic increase in tips this year, which has led to a jump in arrests, charges laid and cases cleared in 2019.

Crime Stoppers received close to 1,300 tips last year, which broke a record previously held since 2017. That led to 25 arrests and 62 charges laid.

Mayor Michael Fougere said those numbers show the program works.

“These are all really positive signs that the program’s growing and there’s trust in the community,” Fougere said. “The support of the directors and of course the RPS as well is really important to make sure this program continues to work very strong.”

Regina Police Chief Evan Bray said Crime Stoppers has helped the police service greatly over the last 35 years.

“I often talk about (how) an investigation is often like putting together a puzzle, and sometimes you know what that missing piece is but you don’t have it, and so the Crime Stoppers tip can be the link to actually holding an offender accountable, helping a victim through a grieving process or through a challenging, traumatic situation,” Bray said. “You can never underestimate the value of information like that.”

Regina Crime Stoppers President Craig Perrault said social media has played a big role to help combat crime.

“Never before in days would it have been sort of like real-time information coming in, but really to be able to get a vehicle seized within days, I just think it would never happen before,” Perrault said. “It would have had to go to investigation, through those channels, it would have taken a long time.”

While Crime Stoppers in independent from Regina Police, there is an officer on staff to go through each and every tip to ensure it is investigated.