Conway Council ponders proposal

Published 12:00 am Thursday, May 5, 2005

CONWAY – The Conway Board of Commissioners were offered a chance to help.

During Monday night’s meeting of the Conway Board, Detective Brenda Burnette of the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office appeared to give a brief overview of the recently started Northampton Crime Stoppers program.

Burnette said the organization, which is a not-for-profit group, was formed on the same principal as a similar Crime Stoppers in Halifax County.

&uot;We are hoping citizens will come together,&uot; she said. &uot;This is not just for those out in the county, but those citizens who are in towns as well.

&uot;We’ve found a lot of people see things, but don’t want to report them because they don’t want to get involved,&uot; Burnette added. &uot;Crime Stoppers allows people to get involved without having to give a name. We want the information, not the name.&uot;

According to the Northampton officer, those who call in to Crime Stoppers at 534-1110 can give information or leave the information on an answering machine that is active if no one is in the office. If that information leads to an arrest and conviction, Burnette will go to the 14-member Crime Stoppers board and ask for a reward to be issued.

Monday night she asked for help from the Conway Town Board to provide those types of incentives for callers.

&uot;We have some money in our budget, but we want more,&uot; Burnette said. &uot;We are currently working on a Northampton County Most Wanted and are asking for help to get that started.

&uot;We feel like if we get these things in place, the phone will start ringing,&uot; she added.

Mayor Brian E. Bolton asked if there were a plan to get the information out in the community and Burnette said there were hats and t-shirts which carry Crime Stoppers information. Those items are being sold as a fundraiser for the organization.

The mayor told Burnett the Board would consider the request as the budget preparation proceeds.