Police departments in the Greater Lansing area and local businesses gathered at the Kellogg Center on Tuesday morning to have breakfast with Special Agent in Charge Paul M. Abbate of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office.
Abbate was the keynote speaker at the breakfast, which was the annual Crimestoppers of Mid-Michigan Fundraising Event. Anchor of the 11 p.m. news at WLNS-TV 6 and leader of the channel’s Crimestoppers program Sheri Jones spoke first Tuesday morning, introducing the program and the many sponsors and organizations present at the event.
The Crimestoppers of Mid-Michigan program, which began in 1989, is a nonprofit community organization that raises funds for rewards encouraging citizen witnesses to call an anonymous tip line to solve felony crimes in the tri-county area.
All the money raised at the fundraiser breakfast will be put back into mid-Michigan to improve the safety of the communities.
“Crimestoppers of Mid-Michigan are managed by a volunteer, unpaid board of directors with law enforcement coordinators in cooperation with the media,” Jones said.
She also mentioned the Fast 50 Program in place at multiple middle schools, high schools and colleges throughout Michigan. The tip line offers young people a compensatory payment of $50 for any tips they can provide to help solve a crime.
“Ex-wives and ex-girlfriends are our biggest tippers,” Jones said.
Although not all states can boast about the relationships within their organizations, Jones said Michigan has a good relationship between their public safety and FBI agencies.
The FBI works closely with the Michigan Intelligence Operations Center, the Southeast Michigan Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Public Corruption and Violent Crimes Task Forces.
They also bump elbows with the local and state law enforcement on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is the nation’s first defense against terrorism.
Abbate, who talked about his experiences in the force and their efforts toward counter-terrorism, said they always work to identify a threat before it reaches U.S. soil.
They’ve detected a number of individuals attempting to enter the U.S. who have been sent by foreign intel services to steal information. The military, FBI and other government agencies and overseas venues have worked together to protect the U.S.
“Ever since 9/11, counter-terrorism has been and remains the number one priority,” Abbate said. “We’ve made a huge amount of progress.”
Abbate said many plots have been thwarted, the world has changed substantially since that time and it’s become more complicated.
“Everyone gets along and works together in and outside of the task force environment to get the job done,” Abbate said. “The relationships are outstanding.”
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