Maine Drug Enforcement Agency investigations many times start with a tip from the public, and now the agency has a new way for citizens to forward those tips and do so anonymously.
Maine DEA Director Roy McKinney said the agency gets an average of two dozen tips a month from concerned Maine citizens about suspected drug activity and many of those tips results in seizures of drugs and arrests.
Developed by tip411, the Maine DEA app is available for download free via the Google Play Store, iTunes App Store, or by visiting maine.gov/dps/mdea.
“Someone dies every day in Maine from a drug overdose and all communities are affected by drug use and abuse. Our partnering with tip411 brings a new investigative tool to forward information to us,” McKinney said.
The new Maine DEA app enables the public to share an anonymous tip with members of the Maine DEA and allows agents to respond back for more information, all as an anonymous two-way conversation.
The Maine DEA app and tip411 texts utilize technology that removes all identifying information before agents see the tip, and there is no way to identify the sender.
Maine residents without a smartphone can also share information with the Maine DEA by sending an anonymous text tip via their cellphone by texting keyword “MDEA” and their message/tip to 847411 (tip411). Anonymous web tips can also be submitted through the agency’s website.
The Maine DEA’s telephones are another way to forward tips; the Maine DEA tip hotline is 800-452-6457 or an urgent tip can be phoned into the Maine Department of Public Safety’s communications center in Augusta at 800-452-4664.
