Asahi: Police to pay rewards for tips that solve cold cases
To battle rising crime, police have started a system to pay rewards from public coffers for tips that help crack serious cases. The National Police Agency on Tuesday began offering up to 3 million yen for tips that help solve heinous criminal cases, such as robbery and murder. Although the United States, Germany and South Korea already offer rewards for tips, police in Japan had long expressed reservations about "buying information." But the rising crime rate convinced the NPA the crime-tip reward system was needed... Rewards privately offered by the families of victims have proved to be an effective tool to gather critical data. In 37 cases in which families have offered to pay for information, five have been solved. Five cold cases have been chosen for the first batch to be listed in the NPA's reward system...more...
