More than 400 tips were called into the New York Police Department’s Crime Stoppers tip line during the five-day search for a masked gunman who fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week.
NYPD officials said about 30 of those tips were useful as information about the gunman’s movements before and after the Dec. 4 shooting. But it wasn’t until a 911 call came in from a McDonald’s employee in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday that police zeroed in on their suspect. The FBI and the Crime Stoppers program have offered up to $60,000 to anyone with a tip leading to a break in the case.
Police and prosecutors moved quickly to arrest and charge Luigi Mangione, 26, but it could take time before the McDonald’s tipster gets a financial reward for assisting in the case. Additionally, the employee might not take home the full $60,000, after paying taxes on the reward. And if other tipsters played a role in leading cops to Mangione, they would also be eligible for a monetary reward, which could be drawn from the same pot of money.
Exactly who will get the reward or a share of it is still being determined, officials said. In fact, the federal and local rewards programs operate under different rules. Both, however, have leeway built in to offer multiple rewards of varying amounts based on a tip’s outcome.
How does someone become eligible for a reward?
The FBI reward program, which offered a reward of up to $50,000 in this case, requires that a tip or information lead to an arrest and conviction.
Phone calls and emails to the FBI press office seeking details of the specific reward program’s process were not returned, but websites for various rewards offered by the agency outline similar processes. A person giving a tip must be nominated, usually by a federal investigating agency. Then a board considers the tip and its role in the investigation, and decides whether to award up to the full amount.
NYPD Crime Stoppers usually offers up to $3,500 for information that leads to an arrest and indictment. In this case, NYPD’s Detective Bureau increased the amount to $10,000, and for its portion a conviction is required.
“The public’s help is essential to solving crimes and keeping our communities safe,” the Police Foundation board said in a statement Wednesday. “The individual in Pennsylvania, who called in a tip, is eligible to receive the reward.”
The McDonald’s employee called 911, which records a phone number and usually a name. Tipsters who call the Crime Stoppers line remain anonymous. The program promises to never trace cellphone numbers or record information about callers, instead giving them a unique identifier number that they can use to check back about the status of the case and the potential for a reward.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny will assess which tip or tips were instrumental in cracking the case when determining how Detective Bureau reward funds should be allocated, police officials said Wednesday.
30 different tips were helpful
Most rewards require a conviction. Given the nature of the murder charges and the multiple jurisdictions involved, it could be a year or more before a trial happens.
For the $3,500 from Crime Stoppers, the board could decide to issue reward money after the indictment is complete. Both the FBI and Crime Stoppers have boards that review the tips and determine which tips substantially helped a case. The boards can exercise discretion in determining how much money a tip might deserve.
The Crime Stoppers board has the leeway to split a reward between tips or to consider each for the maximum amount on a case-by-case basis. NYPD officials did not specify how each of the 30 tips it said were deemed useful helped the case, but it’s unlikely that each tipster would receive the highest amount offered.
The police foundation and the FBI don’t discuss individual cases or reveal how much money it awards individual tipsters. Similarly, the Crime Stoppers program doesn’t release such details in an effort to protect tipsters’ anonymity.