Crime Stoppers Given Recognition for Geo-Fencing Use in Community Policing

Crime Stoppers of Flint and Genesee County was recognized for their new and innovative community initiative of geo-fencing to help combat crime.

Geo-fencing is the practice of using a virtual perimeter for a real world geographic area, such as for child location services, notifying parents if a child leaves the geo-fenced area, or in the case of monitoring employees working in special locations. It is also used in marketing and advertising.

Crime Stoppers received the Community Service Initiative Award for their Geo-Fencing Community Policing Project through OUTFRONT Media implemented last September. OUTFRONT Media provides Crime Stoppers with statistics on geo-fencing impressions and clicks. In a ten-month period, nearly one million impressions were delivered to mobile devices in targeted areas.

The objective of the initiative is to increase community engagement in the efforts to prevent and solve crime through community policing. The results so far are substantial, with higher than average benchmarks for engagement.