Major unsolved crime rewards not enticing tipsters

Six years. Sixty-six cases. Nearly $10 million offered in rewards.

And not a single conviction.

The Nova Scotia Department of Justice created the Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program in 2006 to encourage more people to come forward with information about the province’s growing list of unsolved crimes.

“In policing, it’s always difficult to try to cultivate or motivate people to give information to help lead to an arrest or a conviction,” says justice minister and former police officer Ross Landry.

So far, the program has been an example of just that, especially in a province with a lower-than-the-national-average rate of crimes that have charges laid or accused identified at just under 39 per cent.

For years, names trickled onto the reward list as local police departments and RCMP detachments nominated homicides or stalled missing persons cases due to lack of information.

The Department of Justice issued press releases with details of the crimes and an offer of up to $150,000 for information leading to the arrest and a conviction of those involved.

The Chronicle Herald and other local media jumped on the releases. Then, nothing happened. Silence.

Only last July did a tip lead to the arrest and charging of two brothers with the first-degree murder of Melissa Dawn Peacock, a Dartmouth woman.

“I thought it was great,” says Ruth Slauenwhite of her 20-year-old daughter’s case being added to the reward list in May. “Money talks, so I just had the hope that offering $150,000 would bring somebody foward.”

Peacock had been missing since November 2011. Her remains were later found in Colchester County.

Police reported receiving the tip within weeks of offering the reward.

Slauenwhite said she was “amazed to hear” that her daughter’s case was the first one solved thanks to being added to the list.

In October, a second tip led to the arrest of a man for the homicide of 23-year-old North Preston resident Narico Danfue Downey.

The department has not paid out any reward money, as the cases are still before the courts.

Slauenwhite says she hopes the program helps “bring some other families some answers.”

But will it? Or are the Peacock and Downey cases outliers in a string of failures?

“There are no plans to review the program at this time,” wrote Megan Tonet, Department of Justice spokesperson, in an email. “Based on two recent successes, the program is working.”

Yet compared to other reward programs, the department’s successes are peanuts.

Take Nova Scotia Crime Stoppers. In September alone, the hotline received 335 calls, resulting in four arrests, four charges and five solved cases.

Crime Stoppers accepts tips for all types of crimes, but still plays a role in major ones. The hotline received 152 tips related to the October 2011 disappearance and murder of 19-year-old Amber Kirwan in New Glasgow.

So what’s the difference between the programs?

It comes down to the reasons why people are reluctant to come forward with information in the first place: fear and apathy, says the provincial police co-ordinator for Crime Stoppers, Sgt. Gary Frail.

Crime Stoppers offers a solution for both concerns. It guarantees tippers anonymity in exchange for a reward of $50 to $2,000.

Between the two, anonymity has proven to be far more important. Frail says most people don’t collect their reward: only $1,900 was given out in September.

“I think they are still suspicious about the anonymity,” he says, “and some people just want to help out. They don’t want the money.”

That flies in the face of the Department of Justice’s model.

In offering up to $150,000, Landry says the idea is to “motivate people — we want to get their attention.” To collect a reward, though, tipsters must be interviewed by the police and may have to testify in court.

Landry thinks money will draw out criminals who have information. “Remember that within the criminal universe, money counts. To the good citizen, integrity and contribution to society count.”

He encourages those looking for anonymity to pursue Crime Stoppers.

Frail agrees the programs can work in concert. “From my point of view, the more programs out there seeking information to help solve crimes, the better, right?”

Right. The Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program does no harm. But its model could be improved, drawing from, say, Crime Stoppers, which has been in place in Nova Scotia since 1987 and is based on a globally successful formula.

And the Department of Justice could do more to promote the program. It has a web page and gets media coverage through press releases for each new case on the list.

Occasionally, the department gives a presentation on the program.

Meanwhile, Crime Stoppers has an arsenal of promotional weapons: a website, rack cards, 150 volunteers across the province, speaking engagements, public signs, an awareness guide, TV commercials, full-page print media ads and its own awareness month, January.

That said, the department’s program is young. With increased coverage — especially of a reward payout, should that occur — it may get the attention it needs to draw out people, and their information.

Until then, the Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program resembles little more than a PR trick to demonstrate the  Department of Justice’s “commitment,” as Landry puts it, to tackling crime in a province where too many go unsolved.

Who’s on the list?

Victims of 51 homicides, two double homicides and 13 missing persons.

42 cases from the Halifax Regional Municipality.

30 women and 39 men.

Victims ranging from 14 to 83 years of age. The average age is 33.

Crimes occurring between 1955 and 2012. The oldest case on the list is the murder of taxi driver Michael Leo Resk, who reported seeing a suspicious delivery van and was later found by police shot dead in the back of the vehicle.

You can view a map of the cases here.

This blog was originally published in the Halifax Commoner.