Duluth Police See Tips Come Through New Program

DULUTH - The Duluth Police Department is getting tech savvy to fight crime.

The department rolled out its TIP 411 program Wednesday.

The program allows users to send anonymous tips to police.

The program will also allow police to respond to citizens.

Duluth Police Sgt. Jayme Carlson said, "About 90 percent of the people in the United States have cell phones, they're out there seeing things we are not, We really need the help of the community to do our job."

In order to send a tip, text the keyword, DPDTIP to 847411.

You will get a confirmation text stating that your text has been received and the police may also request more information.

The program is powered by St. Paul based company, Citizen Observer.

Sgt. Carlson said the texts will go through the company's computers first, where all identifying information will be stripped from the text.

Then it will be sent to police.

Duluth Police urge citizens not to use the texting program for emergencies.

The system is email based and not monitored 24 hours a day.

An app for smartphones is expected to roll out at year's end.

You can also report activity directly on the Duluth P.D. website by going to http://www.duluthmn.gov/police/index.cfm.

However, if you want to receive follow up information, you will have to enter in the ID number into the appropriate field to find the incident you reported.