July 30, 2010

Va. cops to pay tipsters for illegal-gun info

New program will trade $100 cash for information about illegal firearms

By Kristin Davis
The Virginian-Pilot

CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Gun-buyback programs aim to get firearms away from criminals but tend to attract legal guns. Police hope to get exactly what they're looking for later this summer by tempting tipsters instead.

A new program will trade $100 cash for information about illegal guns.

"There are certain people who create a lot of problems for us," said Chesapeake Police Chief Kelvin Wright. Those include gun-toting felons and teens as well as people who have been ruled mentally incompetent or who lack a permit for a concealed weapon.

A $10,000 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant will fund the program, which will work much like Crime Line.

Callers are promised anonymity, said Lt. T.M. Foster, and the goal is to use the same number - 1-888-Lock-U-Up - to report illegal guns.

The program will target the Second Precinct in South Norfolk, where most of the city's gun violence occurs, Wright said.

"That's where we hope to flood the area with fliers ," said Foster, who was tasked with coordinating the program.

He based it on a similar initiative in Miami called the Gun Bounty Program, which was launched through that area's Crime Stoppers and offers up to $1,000 for tips that lead to arrests.

The Chesapeake program is the third in recent years aimed at recovering illegal guns.

Wright commissioned the Illegal Firearm Interdiction Program pin earlier this year to recognize officers adept at seizing the weapons. He awarded four in March.

The police department hosted a gun buyback in December 2008. Residents handed over 309 firearms.

"Gun buybacks work," Wright said, "but not as well as you would hope."

Critics say such efforts generally attract law-abiding citizens; that the programs are too costly; and that some people just use the money toward better guns. Chesapeake police tried to limit that by accepting handguns only and offering $100 gift cards rather than cash .

Police confiscated more than 150 illegal guns in 2009, according to department statistics

"We've seen the damage guns in the hands of the wrong people can do," Wright said, noting the shooting death of a 16-year-old Great Bridge High School student a week ago.

Police charged a 15-year-old with involuntary manslaughter in the case.