Greg interviews Michael H. Robertson, a prosecutor with the Somerset County’s Prosecutor’s Office in New Jersey. Michael and his team recently repurposed an anti-bullying app called STOPit Solutions to help members in their community anonymously report crimes, drug related and otherwise.
Greg asks Michael about how the app came into being and why he feels it will be so useful in the fight against the opioid epidemic. Michael explains that during his years as a prosecutor, he’s seen firsthand how important the community is in preventing and solving crimes. “[The community] is instrumental in helping us solve crimes and in many instances, preventing crimes. So what happened is that I met an individual named Todd Schobel, who is the CEO and Founder of STOPit Solutions… It is an app that was originally designed for schools as an anti-bullying app and it enables it’s users to report activity anonymously via a text message. And likewise it provides two-way communication between the user and the individual on the receiving end. And in the capacity that we’re using it – we’re pushing it out to our community members and encouraging them to download it. It is a free app and we hope that by them downloading it and using it, they will be at the forefront – boots on the ground, if you will – providing us information, whether it’s about the heroin or opioid epidemic to things such as most recently in our county where we experienced a homicide. So, again, the community is vital in providing information to law enforcement, and we’re hoping with the introduction of this STOPit app that that will be one of many investigative tools at our fingertips.”
Listen to the podcast to discover how the Somerset County’s Prosecutor’s Office hopes this app will encourage community members that are unlikely to speak out finally report what they see; enabling law enforcement to be proactive rather than reactive.
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