State Auditor Shad White issued the following statement.
Today State Auditor Shad White released a report showing the DeSoto County Crime Stoppers spent nearly $400,000 over the last 10 years while not being able to provide evidence that it ever gave a tip on a crime to law enforcement or gave a reward to anyone who reported a crime to law enforcement.
“Preventing spillover crime from the notoriously dangerous city of Memphis is a top priority for Mississippians in DeSoto County, but my fear after reviewing this audit is that there is no proof that Crime Stoppers helps in that mission,” said Auditor White. “At minimum, DeSoto Crime Stoppers needs to keep some kind of records showing they are an effective organization.”
DeSoto County Crime Stoppers is a nonprofit that exists to reduce crime in DeSoto County by providing a service where citizens can submit anonymous tips of potential criminal activity. Since 2015, DeSoto County Crime Stoppers has received over $400,000 from local government through fees on misdemeanors like speeding tickets. Analysts at the Office of the State Auditor noted:
- DeSoto County Crime Stoppers paid extra fees to keep one of their two tip hotlines unpublished on the internet.
- DeSoto County Crime Stoppers could not produce any records showing it collected or gave tips to law enforcement over a ten-year period. They provided no records showing a reward paid to an informant in the last decade.
- Records show over $240,000—60% of total spending—went to employee salaries. Further records show the organization paid only one employee for years.
- In 2023 and 2024, DeSoto County Crime Stoppers purchased 3,000 calendars and paid over $600 to ship them 13 miles from a company in Hernando to their address in Horn Lake.
This report is one of a series from the Office of the State Auditor showing how nonprofits spend and often waste taxpayer money.
“My office will continue auditing every penny of taxpayer money in Mississippi to shine a light on places where government must improve,” said White.
Mississippians can report any instances of fraud, waste, or abuse of taxpayer funds spent by nonprofits by emailingnonprofitwaste@osa.ms.gov or calling 1-800-321-1275.
17 comments:
DeSoto County is wild. Unhinged, even.
Accountability 101 is being able to keep a ledger of payouts and justification. That should be a requirement to have in-place BEFORE funding is granted.
Now Shad you are really sticking your nose in places where we have had monies at our personal disposal for years. You are looking too deep! No one told us about no damn ACCOUNTABILITY! Stay in your lane Shad!
Why does this surprise anyone?
Oh the irony, or the huge manatee.
Will the staff be able to give themselves huge rewards for this?
crime stoppers........another not for profit corporation funded by government grants which all gos to pay big salaries to its do nothing employees. this is right out of the nancy and zack new playbook.
''not for profit '' is a very misleading term.
fully half of all not for profit corporations registered with the mississippi secretary of state are nothing but flim-flam fraudulent organizations designed to rob the taxpayers
This is a success story. They were able to stop all of the crime and thus there was no crime to report to LE. Right Bennie?
Wait, the main guy was making $24,000? Go get em Shad!
A good start for saving money would be arrest these crooks claiming to be “crime stoppers”.
It is what it is
I'm routinely surprised at the lack of local oversight and broad state regulation. Someone at the county level should be reprimanded.
Check the 990. No big salaries on this one.
Including hospitals. Especially hospitals.
8:43 - It ain't their money. And there's always more where that came from. A lot more. Always.
can we assume that the FBI will have to investigate to get an arrest? Looks like dollar value is over the OSA's limit.
Was this one of the Crime Stoppers rarely seen entities run by local private citizens, or was this one of the more commonly found Crime Stoppers programs run out of an SO or PD?
Post a Comment