Blood Tribe Crime Stoppers, first Indigenous-led chapter in Canada, having positive impact

In the year since its inception, Blood Tribe Crime Stoppers has received positive feedback and is something Blood Tribe police are proud of.

STANDOFF, Alta. — On March 8, the Blood Tribe Police Service launched its own chapter of Crime Stoppers.

It's the first Indigenous-led chapter of the organization in Canada.

In the year since its inception, it's received positive feedback and is something Blood Tribe police are proud of.

"There's been a lot of pride," said Const. Samantha Pedersen, who is in charge of Blood Tribe Crime Stoppers.

"We were the first ones to go down this route in all of Canada. So there's been huge pride with that and that it's ours, it-s community-driven.”

Crime Stoppers is a not-for-profit organization that allows residents of a community to report crimes anonymously.

It's run predominantly by volunteers and funded through donations.

Pedersen believe the program will help empower those who are nervous to report crimes.

"The reason why it was created was kind of to break some barriers. Quite often, our community members wanted to report crime but they were scared for retaliation or maybe even scared for their own personal safety. And this gives them an avenue to provide that information so that they're protected," Pedersen said.

The program has received support from a large portion of the community, with many businesses and other organizations donating to the program.

Much of the community believes crime-prevention programs like Crime Stoppers are essential.

"Crime prevention is very important. We want our members to feel safe and to not have problems with any criminal activity in our communities," said Calvin Williams, elder representative at Red Crow College.

In the first year of the Crime Stoppers program, Blood Tribe Police received 20 tips.

While police are happy with the tips, they believe more can be done.

They've made it a goal to increase outreach.

"I would like to see it, I guess, as far as more tips coming in, basically. So that we know where to go, what's going on – those types of things. Because we hear people say, 'Well, you're not going after this or that,' but we don't know about it in some cases," said Const. Charles Gladstone.

Police say the large, sparsely populated area they have to cover can make it difficult to catch someone in the act of a crime, which makes Crime Stoppers a vital resource.