Tipster receives $20,000 Philadelphia crime reward after 2 years – NBC10 Philadelphia

Two years after the NBC10 Investigators discovered issues with the city’s crime reward program, the tipster whose case the unit has been following received a payment. 

“I got awarded the money,” they said in an interview this week. 

The tipster, whose identity we are concealing to protect their identity, got a $20,000 check.    

“Relieved, ecstatic,” they said. “It could have came with a little bit of interest on there.”

A few years ago, the informant provided Philadelphia Police a tip that led to the arrest — and later conviction of a homicide suspect. 

The City has a longstanding $20,0000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of homicide suspects. 

But when we first met the tipster in 2023, we uncovered a problem. 

At the time, the city did not have a formal way to tell people they were denied, nor did it have an appeals process.

The tipster told us then that it had been months since the suspect was convicted of murder and yet, they hadn’t heard anything from the city about the reward. 

“I was being given the runaround up until you got involved,” the tipster said of investigative reporter Claudia Vargas.

One year later, the tipster received a formal reward rejection letter — citing their alleged employment with the city. 

The letter also had a new process — the option to appeal the denial. 

“This opened up the door for anybody who was denied the money,” they said. “They’re able to now appeal it.”

It wasn’t until earlier this year that the tipster we spoke with and others were able to make their case before the office of administrative review. That’s the agency now charged with handling appeals in crime reward cases. 

The NBC10 Investigators got a first-hand look at the new appeals process, going behind the closed-door hearing with the tipster. 

Days later, the hearing officer granted the tipster their appeal — noting that they did not work for the city.

“It should be a simple process and it’s not,” the informant said. 

Earlier this month, the tipster received a $20,000 crime reward check. 

Including that payment, the city has paid $660,000 in crime rewards between March 2017 and present. 

“I just think the whole policy itself needs to be revamped,” the tipster said, noting in particular the section on: “who qualifies and who doesn’t. They need to be more transparent to the public.”

The Philadelphia Police Department declined an interview request to discuss its crime reward program.. 

Department spokesperson Sgt. Eric Gripp said PPD’s crime reward policy is on the department’s website for anyone to read — and that it remains unchanged. 

What has changed since our investigation began, according to Gripp, is that anyone who applies for a crime reward will now get a letter notifying them of PPD’s decision. 

“We hope these changes will better inform tipsters of the status of a reward request regardless as to them having made a request on their own, or on their behalf,  from an investigator,” he said in an e-mail.

The appeals process itself is also new.