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Johnson has been a Crime Stoppers coordinator for 15 years, watching crime rates and tips fluctuate. But, he said, "I've never seen an increase like it is now."

Crime Stoppers programs strictly protect the anonymity of callers. Each tip is assigned a number, and if the tip results in an arrest, the caller can collect a cash reward, usually by going to a designated bank. Some programs pay tipsters within hours of an arrest; others have monthly meetings to approve reward amounts.

Not only have the number of tips increased, several program coordinators said, but people are also more diligent about calling back to find out if and when they can collect.

Jim Cogan, director of the Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers program in California, said most of the rewards offered by his program used to go unclaimed. But with large numbers of foreclosures and heavy job losses, Cogan said, "now we're seeing rewards get picked up right away and our tipsters being frustrated when tips aren't available as quickly as they need the money."

Karen Keen, the tips coordinator for First Coast Crime Stoppers in Jacksonville, said she had, on occasion, been given approval to pay tipsters early, if they persuaded her that they needed the money to pay a light bill or some other necessity.

Some have many tips

Some people have made a cottage industry of calling in tips. Although repeat callers do not give their names, operators recognize their voices.

"We have people out there that, realistically, this could be their job," said Sgt. Zachary Self, who answers Crime Stoppers calls for the Macon Police Department.

"Two or three arrests per week, you could make $700, $750 per week," Self said. "You could make better than a minimum-wage job."

He said that his program typically averaged 215 arrests per year but that this year it had already hit 100, and he projected it would make more than 300, a record, by year's end.

In some cases, the quality of the tips is lagging as people grasp for any shred of information that might result in an arrest. A woman in Macon, for example, recently called to report that a family member -- who was wanted for burglary and whose name and address were already known to the police -- was at home. His home.

Such a tip might seem worthless on its face, said Jean Davis, who took the call. But many police departments do not have the personnel to watch a suspect's comings and going. In that case, the young man was arrested.

Typically, the greatest number of calls comes in response to news coverage of a specific crime or a weekly list of wanted suspects. At other times, people call to report a crime the police might not even be aware of. Or, they might just call to report the whereabouts of someone with an old warrant.

"We're getting a lot more calls related to wanted persons," said Sgt. Tommi Bridgeman, who coordinates the Beaufort County Crime Stoppers program. "People who know that these people have warrants out for their arrest are calling to turn them in."

Bridgeman said her calls were up 25 percent even though the program's one advertisement, a patrol car emblazoned with the hot-line number, was out of commission.

"Folks around here need the money," she said. "There's not a lot of jobs here. We try to pay out every two weeks because we know they need the money."

Places with quick payments and bleak economic conditions tended to report increases in call volume. Lee County, Fla., had the highest rate for home foreclosures in the United States in February and March, and its once-plentiful construction jobs have dried up.

Last week, the Crime Stoppers coordinator there, Trish Routte, got a call from a man reporting drug activity, a tip that paid him $450. It was his second call in a week, said Routte, who recognized the caller's voice.

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