Victims Can Report Crime Anonymously On Web Site
Steve and Diane Galebach, along with Lancaster County, Penn., District Attorney Donald Totaro, formally launchED victimpower.org, a Web site that allows crime victims to anonymously report a crime and communicate with law enforcement, on Oct. 16.
Unlike telephone or email reports of crimes, which can be traced or monitored, victimpower.org destroys all routing information, including Internet protocol addresses, that a hacker could use to trace back to the victim.
The technology was designed by physicist and applied mathematician David Ross, who was the chief designer of the U.S. Treasury Department’s pay.gov verification system.
Since the site was launched in January, people have filed more than 60 reports, and victims and authorities have communicated back-and-forth more than 100 times in 20 states.
Although the Web site gives users the ability to report a crime in every county in the country, Lancaster County will be the first county where local police and victimpower.org interact directly without referrals from Web site workers.
Lancaster County officials hope the Web site will encourage people to report crimes ranging from gang violence to drug trafficking. Totaro said he believes Lancaster County will provide a perfect pilot launch for the program, which will not only lead to more crimes being reported, but to more convictions as well.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Lancaster Sunday News (PA) (10/09/05) P. B1; Schwartz, Michael .