Crime Stoppers is raising awareness about crime and ways to prevent it with tips and advice during Crime Prevention Week (Nov. 2-9).

Each day throughout the week, advice about home security, how to report crime, internet safety, fraud awareness and other key crime issues are being posted on the B.C. Crime Prevention Association’s website.

The BCCPA is also encouraging police detachments and community groups to host public events promoting crime prevention.

“Nobody wants to be a victim of crime, but the onus is upon the individual to take whatever effort that they can,” said Const. Gary O’Brien, Nanaimo RCMP spokesman.

He said police cannot be on the spot 24/7, so citizens need to look at ways they can take responsibility to prevent crime.

Tips paid out by Nanaimo and District Crime Stoppers in 2009 indicate people are stepping up to the plate.

Chuck Campbell, board president, said tip amounts are paid according to the severity of the crime and the risk the tipper is taking by passing along information.

As of the end of August, 163 tips were made to Nanaimo Crime Stoppers, up from 122 tips for the same period in 2008.

“If you battle crime as an individual and not as a community, you’ve basically lost the war before you even start,” Campbell said. “So it really is a community responsibility.”

Campbell credits Crime Stoppers’ success in part to O’Brien’s efforts in getting Crime Stoppers’ message to the public through various print and electronic media with radio and TV broadcasts – and more serious crimes are being resolved because of those efforts.

“That’s what Crime Stoppers is supposed to be,” he said. “Without media exposure we’re kind of handcuffed.”

For more information about Crime Prevention Week, please visit the BCCPA website at www.bccpa.org.

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