A vital tool in solving crimes is the tip, a piece of information, big or small, that helps guide an investigation and sometimes even solve a crime.

Recognizing a need for cooperation between police, media and the public in generating such tips, County Executive Tom Gulotta and Police Commissioner Donald Kane inaugurated the Nassau County Crime Stoppers program in 1995.

Through the program pertinent information is supplied by anonymous informants through 1-800-244-TIPS, a toll-free number manned seven days a week, 24 hours a day, by Nassau County Detectives. Informants may receive a reward of up to $1,000.

To date, the international program, which began in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the '70s, has been used in solving 550,000 major crimes, provided information that has put 95,000 criminals behind bars at a 97 percent conviction rate and has led to the recovery of over $3 billion in narcotics and stolen property, a number Lt. Bob Lukas, the supervisor in charge of the Nassau County Crime Stoppers Unit, noted is climbing daily.

Lukas explained the success of his program is indicative of the people it serves. "One of the reasons Nassau County is the best place to live in the United States is because the people care," he said.

However, Lukas' opinion notwithstanding, the program has been designed to facilitate calls from all types of informants. Therefore, anonymity and a cash reward are the two legs on which this program stands.

Anonymity may entice those reluctant to cooperate, whether they fear police involvement because they have criminal pasts or are from tight-knit communities suspicious of the police.

"We alleviate the fear of involvement," said Lukas.

Lukas recalled one instance where a tip from a woman solved a murder whose investigation had reached a dead end five or six years earlier.

This woman, for whatever reason fearful of what her coming forth might entail, desperately wanted to tell the authorities what she knew.

Once she told them she expressed to the Crime Stoppers detectives how thankful she was for the sense of relief and safety that such a program afforded her.

The program's other strength is the cash reward, which is, according to Lukas, another incentive to convince those fearful of calling to get involved.

Those who call are issued a code. If the information leads to an arrest an additional code will be issued, as will the address of a bank where, once the code is presented, the informant can pick up his reward money of up to $1,000.

The Crime Stoppers Board, comprised of community-oriented business people, reviews each case and determines the amount of the reward an informant deserves based upon the value of the tip.

The amount of risk to the tipster, the number of crimes that were solved because of the tip, the amount of property recovered because of the tip, the type of crime committed and the number of people arrested all factor into the decision.

These decisions are often made after discussions with the Crime Stoppers detectives.

The money for the rewards, in fact, for the whole program, comes not from taxpayer money, but from private donations.

The calls are unsolicited. They are in response to a program that delivers a general notification for help and therefore they have been constitutionally upheld in the courts.

Each day, when Crime Stoppers Detective Blair Beaudet arrives at the Crime Stoppers offices located in the Nassau County Police headquarters, he checks with the detectives who were manning the phones the night before, continuing the 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week cycle.

If there is new information, Beaudet notifies the appropriate agencies whether it be respective Nassau County Police Squads, the Federal Government, Immigration, Postal Authorities or the Health Department. The information is given to the detectives directly responsible for the investigations.

"It is a viable operation and people have learned it," said Beaudet.

Days at the Crime Stoppers office may yield no calls or may yield 10 to 15 calls fielded by one of four trained detectives who know what kind of questions to ask to develop important tips out of the raw information provided by the callers.

When Beaudet mans the phones he relies on his detective training and his four years of experience in the Crime Stoppers Unit, as well as detailed files if they are available, to not only communicate with anonymous callers, but to extrapolate important information from what they say.

The calls pertain to such crimes as homicides, assaults, narcotics, robberies, parole violations, mail fraud, family court violations and all other conceivable crimes.

The information reported not only concerns crimes that transpire in Nassau County, but in other states and countries. This proves little of a problem for Crime Stoppers since it has over 1,000 programs in 18 countries such as Ireland, England and Australia and US territories like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

Though the scope of the information may be great, some factors do appear with some regularity. According to Beaudet there is often an air of nervousness in the informant.

"We sometimes have taken calls that have a fear of recognition of their voice," said Beaudet.

What finally prompts the caller to dial the number is varied.

"I think doing the right thing, being a good citizen, money and, in a more sinister scenario, the elimination of competition among criminals are all reasons," suggested Lukas.

There is no clear-cut definition of a good call to Crime Stoppers, said Lukas. He believes all information should be called into Crime Stoppers, because any piece of information could be the vital link between already existing information and the solution to the crime.

"All information relative to a crime, that a person may feel is of value, should be called into Crime Stoppers," said Lukas.

Sometimes the process begins with the police who, when all leads are exhausted, turn to Crime Stoppers to publicize their search for information.

Autonomous from the Nassau County Police Public Information Office, Crime Stoppers often issues more detailed releases, sometimes with sketches, because they are only authored after a period of investigation.

In the wake of national television programs such as America's Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries which boast of successes in solving numerous crimes, Lukas feels that programs like Crime Stoppers can only be enhanced by the public's greater awareness of the existence of such programs.

To do its part, Lukas would like to see the local media publicize the Nassau County telephone number, the methods and objectives of Crime Stoppers and the press releases it issues.

Crime Stoppers reports are regularly heard on radio stations WHLI, WALK, KJOY and on television Channel 12 and Telicare, where every Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. they have their own Crime Stoppers show (one week for Nassau County and one week for Suffolk County).

Crime Stoppers reports also appear frequently in newspapers, such as Anton Community Newspapers of which the Mineola American is a part.

The Crime Stoppers program, which can be reached at 1-800-244-TIPS, is at its most effective when the media, the public and the police all participate in a vibrant communication exchange to uncover vital information, with one goal in mind.

Said Lukas, "The ultimate objective is to solve the crime."