I was reading about the Wisconsin case of Jayme Closs and it said the police are offering $25,000 for information regarding the case. It has since been doubled by an addition from the company Jenny-O. (Where the deceased parents worked)
It got me wondering, how does that work? Who decides whether the information is the key to getting the reward money? What if it comes from two or more sources? Split it?
Lastly, it first said, the “police” were offering $25,000. Does this mean the police dept put up the money?
Anyone have any experience or knowledge with this kind of thing?
as you mentioned in some cases a private donor/business puts up the reward money or part of it. But normally it does come from the police . I assume they have a budget for rewards that comes from the city or county or state that funds them.
In my state the State or a Business (that is, a bank…) puts up the money, and defines the object, and the head of the police force makes the decision on what actually gets paid.
The reward is normally “up to” X amount, for “information leading to the conviction”. That has lead to at least one well-known case where it wasn’t obvious why the police commissioner wasn’t making an award of the full amount. While there are specific guidelines, in the end it is (their) decision, and I don’t recall a change or an explanation.
(Around here) members of the police force are /not/ eligible to receive any normal reward: neither are people who incite crimes or just turn themselves in for reward.
Apart from bank robbery, most crimes here don’t lead to any kind of positive reward. But tipping off the police leads to you being identified to the criminal, who then comes around to your house and burns out your car. That’s not an official reward though, it’s just the way things work.
As has been said, the city, or other government entity (e.g. County, State or Municipality), usually provides the local law enforcement agency (e.g. PD or Sheriff) the money to pay the reward. The law enforcement agency has the discretion to decide who gets the money based on whatever criteria they choose to us.
I believe the reward can be split across multiple leads/tipsters, again based on the discretion of the law enforcement agency. If a company decides to increase the reward that usually means providing the funds to the law enforcement agency so they can pay a higher reward and hopeful generate a lot more leads/tips.
I wonder what would happen if they got a tip leading them to a solid suspect who gets arrested and they pay the full reward amount to a tipster… only later that suspect gets exonerated and wasn’t the bad guy.
They couldn’t really ask for the money back could they? And if they gave the reward money out already but then another tip comes in pointing to the real bad guy, I guess they can’t pay a reward to the correct tipster since the money’s gone?
Other times they don’t. Many people put up money to get Andrew Cunanan, including Gay/Lesbian groups. And that was not a common thing, back in 1997 – those groups didn’t have as much political and cultural clout as they do today. The police had an idea of where he was, and his MO was to mooch off people, so they offered the reward to get whoever was hiding him to give him up. Cunanan shot himself and a handyman noticed. He got the cash, but needed police protection and a bullet proof vest to collect. In particular, the Gay and Lesbian groups wanted to say – “that’s not what we meant when we offered a reward.” But everyone eventually paid up and tried to not talk about it anymore.
That would suck for the tipster if he ratted on the actual bad guy and the prosecution botched the case and lost. Even more so if the bad guy then found out who ratted on him and went after his family. Maybe that’s a case of offering a partial reward…
Something I have wondered about this: if you go to the cops and give them a juicy lead on a crime, do you not then open yourself up to some heavy-duty questioning about how you knew about it, and end up under suspicion as an accessory? Or is there an unspoken rule that if you give the info they won’t pry too deeply?
So, a reward is offered weeks after the crime and you come forward with definitive proof (you know the perpetrator, overheard him planning the crime, etc).
The police ask why you didn’t come forward weeks ago and you explain that you were waiting to see if a reward would be offered.
I have to mention that Crime Stoppers pays out “rewards” for tips on crimes while keeping your information private and no follow up talks with the police.
The city of Riverside, CA renegaded on a reward because the guy killed himself which didn’t lead to a conviction, and “arrest and conviction” was the condition of the reward.