Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers marks 40 years

WLOX reporter Noah Nobles highlighted Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers’ 40th anniversary in a video that details the nonprofit’s partnership with local law enforcement across the coast, the organization said.

WLOX reported that for 40 years Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers has helped turn anonymous tips into criminal convictions, a service many South Mississippi detectives credit with solving otherwise unsolvable cases. The Gulf Coast branch of the national nonprofit formed in 1986, about a decade after Crime Stoppers began passing anonymous tips to law enforcement nationwide.

The program originally covered three coastal counties but now serves Jackson, Harrison, Hancock, George, Stone, Pearl River and Greene counties, WLOX said. Bay St. Louis Sgt. Dustin Weir spoke to Nobles in the video and explained how Crime Stoppers works in partnership with those agencies.

“You’ve got to have help from the community,” Bay St. Louis Sgt. Dustin Weir said. “Without community help, without being able to get surveillance footage from people, some of the crimes can be very hard to solve.” WLOX published a full story online. We will provide more information as it becomes available.