In 2019, an anonymous source reached out to Larry Wieda to follow up on a tip about a drug operation in Loveland that had been submitted to Crime Stoppers two years prior. Although the tip was not investigated in 2017, it later led to a major bust by Loveland police in 2019.
Around 2,200 drug plants, market valued at approximately $6 million were taken from the location and four arrests were made. However, only two weeks later, a similar tip led to police uncovering a second Loveland drug operation resulting in 33 pounds of methamphetamine — an estimated street value of $340,000.
This is just one of many stories told by Larry Wieda, executive director of Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers, about people helping to solve crimes through the Crime Stoppers program.
Crime Stoppers programs, located in every state and in 23 other countries around the world, are non-profit organizations that help solve criminal cases.
Using a Crime Stoppers website or hotline, people with information on a case can submit a tip anonymously, which gets reviewed by Crime Stoppers and sent to law enforcement agencies that use the information for an investigation.
“If you’re a tipster, you can go online or you can call the (Crime Stoppers’) phone number and give information,” Wieda said. When the online tip or phone call comes in, according to Wieda, it’s encoded and encrypted so that the tipster’s identity is untraceable.
Wieda worked for the Boulder Police Department in 1976, when the first Crime Stoppers program started in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The chief of police, at the time, Jay Propst, asked Wieda if he was interested in traveling to Albuquerque to learn more about Crime Stoppers and see if it was a program that should be implemented in Colorado.
“I was very impressed with the idea and the concept of the program; of the media, the community and law enforcement all working together on a program to guarantee the anonymity of an informant,” Wieda said.
Wieda helped start Boulder County Crime Stoppers, the first state Crime Stoppers program in Colorado, in 1984. Eight years ago, the program moved to cover Boulder, Weld and Morgan counties and became Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers.
Part of Wieda’s job is to review tips that are sent in to the organization and to make sure they are followed up on.
“I get the tip, review the tip to make sure the information in there is viable, then pass it on to the (authority) agency that should be responsible for the investigation of that particular crime,” Wieda said. “The agency then assigns it to a detective or detective division to follow through on the investigation and bring the case to a conclusion.”
According to Wieda, approximately 600 law enforcement agencies in the nation employ a law enforcement coordinator, who is responsible for working directly with Crime Stoppers programs to receive tips.
“The agencies that we are involved with could be the local law enforcement agency all the way up to national security,” Wieda said.
Regardless of whether or not an agency is part of the Crime Stoppers USA network, Crime Stoppers programs are responsible for locating and contacting the agency that should deal with the case. This can include tips that need to be shared with police departments on the other side of the country or even on another continent, Wieda said.
“When we get those tips, we have no boundaries, even though we’re Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers,” Weida said. “It’s our obligation as part of the program to pass that information along to any agency …I will search out the agency that the tip should go to, find a coordinator, detective, chief or sheriff, and get them that information.”
Whether they submit an online tip or call a Crime Stoppers hotline, tipsters are asked a variety of questions, including where the crime took place.
If the tipster fails to provide a location, Wieda has the capability to bring up a map of the world and pin-point where the tip came from. Then, “I will find a Crime Stopper program or law enforcement agency within that area and pass that information along,” Wieda said.
The Crime Stoppers’ software also allows for two-way communication between the tipster and law enforcement. All the while, the messages are encrypted and encoded to protect the identity of the tipster.
Wieda said, due to his years of experience in law enforcement, it’s usually pretty easy to figure out “what looks good and what looks bad” when it comes to deciding whether or not a tip includes viable information. Regardless, Wieda never lets a piece of information not get passed on.
“We have the capability through the software to cross-reference the tip,” Wieda said. “Even though it may look bogus, it may pop up on a case that wasn’t even part of the original tip. It may end up solving other crimes just based on the location, vehicle, suspects name, etc.”
According to Wieda, if a tip to Crime Stoppers leads to an arrest and filing of criminal charges, the tipster is eligible for an award of up to $2,000 from the organization.
Wieda said, “over the years, we’ve been very, very successful with the program. We have a 96 percent conviction rate based on Crime Stopper tips, which is pretty good.”
In the past eight years, Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers has also solved 30 homicide cases.
Despite Crime Stoppers' high success rate for solving cases, “we are still the best kept secret,” Wieda said. “Most people, citizens, don’t want to be involved with law enforcement (unless) they’re the victim themselves.”
According to Detective Bryan Franke, the liaison between the Longmont Police Department and Crime Stoppers, Crime Stoppers is a “super resource” for the people who do not want to assume the risks that are sometimes associated with working directly with law enforcement.
“There’s a whole subset of society that has information but does not want the risk of being involved,” Franke said. “(Crime Stoppers) gives them a method of conveying what they know, but still gives them a sense of security.”
If you or someone you know has information about a crime, please contact Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or visit the Crime Stoppers' website to get the contact information for a program near you.
