Brick Township Police are offering a new avenue to submit tips about a suspect or incident in hopes more residents will step up and help thwart crime.

'We Tip' is a national crime hotline and internet line that staffs operators 24/7 to collect any tips you submit and forwards them to the appropriate agency.

Brick Police Chief James Riccio hopes this system will allow residents to be more comfortable submitting information.

"It's a means for faculty, students and members of the public to report things anonymously," Riccio said. "What we want is for people to report anything that they may know about regarding threats to students or crimes that they may know about and this is a means to do that."

Riccio also hopes that with this program more people will call in to report things.

"The more people that call in and report things, the more crimes we can solve," Riccio said. "We rely on the community quite a bit to help us solve crimes and this is just another tool that they can use to help us in that regard."

He says the tip you provide to police stays between you and them.

"If they (you) want to remain anonymous, they will remain anonymous," Riccio said. "If we were in the business of outing them after they've given us information then nobody would want to call. That's not what we do."

In a day and age where it's important to say something when you see something, Riccio suspects many people are still hesitant to do so.

"We hear about it all the time after these tragic incidents that people heard things or knew things and they didn't come forward," Riccio said. "I'm also sure that there is a reluctance for people in this day and age to come forward because they're fearful of being labeled a racist or a bigot in someway because of things that they've reported."

He hopes that if people know something they will report it and stop a crime before it happens.

You can submit anonymous tips 24/7 by calling 1-800-78-Wetip or by visiting wetip.com.

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