OC Crime Tip Hotline In Midst Of Revamping

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OCEAN CITY – Ocean City is looking to simplify and publicize its crime tip hotline for citizens to partner with the police department by reporting suspicious activity.
During the Mayor and City Council meeting a couple of weeks ago, Councilman Brent Ashley questioned if Ocean City’s Crime Tip hotline of 410-520-5136 is still active.
“If it is not active, then maybe we can re-activate it and post it on the government cable station, so we have more eyes in the community watching for criminal activity and have a mechanism to report it,” Ashley said.
Since that time, Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) Chief Ross Buzzoro has responded the OCPD CID/Narcotics section has a tip-line of 410-723-6607 that is used by the public to report drug activities.
According to the chief, it has been in existence for about 10 years and is checked by detectives on a daily basis. In an effort to further public awareness, the contact number will be made available on OCPD’s website and through other social media outlets.
“It is my thought that we should partner with our citizens to further lower crime,” Ashley said in thanking the chief for looking into the matter. “Extra eyes watching and reporting suspicious activity can only be a good thing. I would like to see us move forward with this type of initiative.”
On Monday, OCPD Public Affairs Specialist Lindsay O’Neal confirmed the department is currently working on revamping the Crime Tip hotline.
“We have plans to make the tip line much easier to find through not just our website but on all of our social media outlets as well since a growing number of citizens are turning to social media to report crimes,” O’Neal submitted. “We also currently have tentative plans to combine the narcotics and general crime tip lines into one to make it much easier on the public.”
Another idea being put forward is developing an email address that is identifiable and easy to remember for citizens to anonymously report crime activity.
“We do not want to change it too much, but we certainly want to make it known that we have a tip line and make it easy for people with information about crime to share it with us,” O’Neal submitted.
According to O’Neal, crime tip hotline specifics will be reported in the near future.