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NATCHEZ — Law enforcement officers in Adams, Claiborne, Jefferson and Wilkinson counties appeared outside of Natchez City Hall for Wednesday press conference about the Southwest Mississippi Regional Crime Stoppers program, which allows civilians to leave anonymous tips that could help law enforcement solve crimes in their community.

If the tip submitted through Crime Stoppers leads to an arrest, the informant can be rewarded up to $1,000 for the information.

The nationally recognized Crime Stoppers program was founded in 1976 and has since been reinvigorated to make anonymous reporting safer and easier for the citizen, law officials said.

“The Sheriffs and Chiefs of the Southwest Mississippi Regional Crime Stoppers are proud to join forces with the Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell to promote our Crime Stoppers Program in an effort to make Adams County, Claiborne County, Jefferson County, and Wilkinson County a safer place for its citizens to raise their families and call home,” law officials said in a news release.

“Crime Stoppers is a proven tool that is used across the country to help solve crimes. Further, the State of Mississippi has 32 active programs statewide that have helped solve numerous crimes over the years, everything from homicides to drug cases. Your Southwest Mississippi Crime Stoppers program provides a completely anonymous avenue for citizens to report information regarding a crime in your community.”

Anyone that has knowledge relating to a crime that has occurred in their community is encouraged to call the Southwest Mississippi Regional Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-888-442-5001. The tip line is totally anonymous and rings into the national Crime Stoppers tip center based out of Texas. Your telephone number is completely scrambled so that there is no way to identify the caller.

Natchez Police Department Commander Cal Green said citizens may also report using the P3 Tips app.

“We’ve been riddled with crime, we’ve been riddled with burglaries and we’ve been riddled with murders and now we need you all to stand and say enough is enough. We’re going to take back this community but we can’t take it back just on the law enforcement side. We have to have buy-in from each and every citizen,” Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten said.

Patten also said support from the Adams County community and good investigative work from the Adams County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Group helped bring about the arrest of an individual from a year-old double homicide case on Wednesday morning.

Natchez Police Chief Joseph Daughtry echoed Patten’s request for public aid in crime solving.

“We are taking a stand. The community has spoken and they want something done … but we need the citizen’s involvement,” Daughtry said.