Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
MURRAY -- For the first time in Utah, a new system is being used to take in anonymous tips from the public. Police hope more people feel comfortable with it than with conventional methods.
The system helps those who don't want to make an anonymous tip to police because they're not convinced it will be truly anonymous
"They don't want to get involved, or they don't want to be known as a snitch," explains Murray police Detective Kenny Bass.
Bass says the department's new texting system provides tipsters total anonymity. Here's how it works: Tipsters text in the word "mcpdtip," along with their tip, to 274637 -- which spells "CRIMES" on their telephone touch pad.
"When they hit ‘send,' it sends that to a server -- which we don't have control over -- which then encrypts it and sends it yet another server, which encrypts it again," Bass says.
Murray police can send a text message back to the tipster, but it goes through the same double encryption process.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
