We are writing in response to the terrible and senseless crime that recently happened in the Montrose High School. Our heartfelt wishes for a speedy recovery go to Miss Haulman and all who have been affected by this tragic incident. We sincerely hope that nothing like this happens to anyone, but especially to our youth while they are in our schools.
In a recent article in The Daily Sentinel about this incident, it was stated that “seconds after the stabbing students were rapidly texting  each other with crucial details in the case.” It went on to say that  investigators didn’t learn about this texting information until much later.
Recently, Crime Stoppers of Mesa County, with the support of all  local law enforcement and cooperation of School District 51, installed a  system to handle situations like these. Crime Stoppers of Mesa County now  has the ability to receive tips instantly and anonymously via text  messaging and also via the Internet. These tips are in law enforcement  hands in a matter of seconds and can then be immediately transferred to  school administrators and school resource officers.
Another very helpful feature of this system is the ability for law enforcement to  anonymously contact these text message tipsters to acquire more information as needed. Everyone agrees that this is a very valuable tool to help prevent crimes from occurring or to solve existing crimes.
Crime Stoppers of Mesa County now has multiple ways for people to give a tip. Use the standard telephone service at 241-STOP (7867) or 1-800-221-STOP(7867). Using the new text messaging, a tipster would text data to CRIMES(274637)  and include TIP729 in the message.
To give a tip or to learn more about the system visit Crime Stopper’s Web site at www.241stop.com and click on the Web tip tab. This section has a form specifically to deal with student or school related issues.
It is said that every minute in America there are over 300,000 text messages being sent. If Montrose had a system like this in place, possibly one of those messages could have prevented something like this from happening. For more information visit Crime Stopper’s Web site at  www.241stop.com.
BRIAN LANGFITT
KATHY DANIELS
RICH PARRISH
and the volunteer board of
Crime Stoppers of Mesa County

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