To most people, it was a stolen necklace. But to Const. Ryan Ehalt and the elderly woman who was robbed, it was a family heirloom that needed to be returned to its rightful owner.
The woman was leaving a business on Idylwyld Drive when she was assaulted by two women, who took her necklace. The stolen necklace had her late husband’s ring attached to it.
Ehalt made an emotional appeal on Saskatoon Crime Stoppers‘ Facebook page to find the necklace.
“Within a week there was a knock at the door as related to me by a family member of this person. When that lady came down to the front step there on her front step was the necklace and the ring.” Ehalt recalled.
“I don’t know how it happened. The file concluded without any arrests. But that was because of Crime Stoppers putting that information out there and seeing that happen.”
Ehalt was at first reluctant to join Saskatoon Crime Stoppers. Three and a half years later, he is hanging up the bow tie and returning to patrol.
“I was actually looking for sort of a daytime job after I had my second kid… and I got asked if I’d be interested in joining the Crime Stoppers,” Ehalt recalled.
“I thought that’s where careers go to die.”
Instead, he became the face of the non-profit organization.
Ehalt said he has seen and read a lot of tips during the years, facilitating the flow of information between the group and Saskatoon police investigators.
“They have ideas, have certain goals, what they want to get accomplished. But I came in with experience in street gangs,” Ehalt said.
“I said, ‘this is what you can do. You can actually go after the information. You want to be a useful tool for the police service.’”
Social media
Frustrated at not being able to identify a suspect with a noticeable tattoo led to Ehalt’s first campaign — the “dear suspect” posts.
“This really seems to have resonated a lot with what people are experiencing,” he said, attributing it to people being frustrated by the amount of crime in the city.
It turned into a social media success, with 500 shares in a short period of time.
“So I started writing some more and they quickly start taking off, our Facebook page started to grow.”
Saskatoon Crime Stoppers had roughly 600 followers when Ehalt came onboard. It grew to 2,000 by February 2017 and now has over 42,000 followers.
In 2018, the most recent year for statistics, Saskatoon Crime Stoppers shared over 360 posts on Facebook and reached more than 12.48 million people.
Ehalt said he likes to draw on emotions in his posts, which he did when seven jingle dresses were stolen from a vehicle.
Jingle dresses have rows of metal cones that make a distinctive sound as performers dance and is considered a healing dress by First Nations.
The theft left the Ingenious woman heartbroken. She made four of the dresses, two were made by her sister, and one was bought by a family friend.
Suspects were identified trying to sell the jingle dresses at a pawnshop, Ehalt said, and all the dresses were tracked down and returned to its owner.
“Obviously, this lady was extremely happy. That’s one of the success stories, super proud to be a part of that type of success.”
Ehalt said it shows the power of social media when used in a positive way.
Those Who Took the Missing
Ehalt writes every Facebook post and his most recent campaign is one close to his heart.
To Those Who Took the Missing is an appeal to solve historical missing person cases.
He came up with the idea for the campaign after hearing about a man who confessed to killing a person.
“He walked in through the front doors of the police station and confessed seemingly out of the blue,” Ehalt said.
“He said ‘I did this,’ led police where the body was and pled guilty.”
Information started coming in right after the first letter was posted.
“We now have one hundred and thirty tips about historical missing persons in the province,” Ehalt said.
“When I read through them, and I’ve seen them, are so detailed and to the point that it sends chills down my spine… because this person is typing or as related to a call taker, are horrific memory that they’ve been a part of.”
“I have no idea if they’re the person responsible or if they’re just a tipster.”
Although the campaign is aimed at historical missing person cases, Ehalt said they have received tips on unsolved murders and regular missing people.
“It’s been phenomenal. We think that’s due in part well, due mostly to the theme that runs through all the letters so far… (there) can truly be no freedom without confession.”
Ehalt believes there are people in the community that have the answers to help solve those historical missing people’s cases.
“They can walk down, spill their heart, spill their mind, whatever has been this burden for so long. And they can actually unburden themselves,” Ehalt said.
“They can potentially find that freedom that they’ve been looking for.”
He is hoping to take the campaign to a national level when he returns to active patrol duty in the new year.
Ehalt said he has sought permission from Saskatoon police Chief Troy Cooper to start up a consulting opportunity to help other Crime Stopper programs increase awareness in their communities.
“I’d love to take this missing person campaign as a national campaign. It’s not complex. It’s not time-consuming.
“I know how to find missing people. And I’m just looking for the opportunity to do that, to give that opportunity. We’re doing it in Saskatchewan, we can do it all across Canada.”
Loss prevention
Reducing shoplifting is another area where the Crime Stoppers program has had success.
Ehalt said he found a way to prevent crime by featuring suspects in social media posts.
“Because they’re so afraid, they’re so paranoid of being featured on Crime Stoppers, they stopped committing crime.”
One major retailer that use to make requests to have shoplifting suspects featured stopped contacting him, Ehalt said.
When he called the loss prevention officer to find out why, Ehalt said he was told there was no more crime.
“He told me this stat… within the 12 month period leading up to that time, (they) went from $12,000 worth of theft down to $1,200.
“It wasn’t a prevention message, but it ended up being a prevention message because nobody wanted to go to that store and commit crime to be featured on Crime Stoppers.”
The bowtie
What started as a marketing technique turned into a feature that has become synonymous with Ehalt and Crime Stoppers — his bow ties.
Don’t expect him to hang them up now that he is leaving.
“You need people to be interested. You need to be interested in what you’re selling, you have to be interested in you,” Ehalt said, adding that he jokingly said he was going to wear a bow tie before recording his first Crime of the Week segment.
“So I end up wearing a bow tie once every two months. But somehow everybody thought I was wearing it every day, which is not the case.”
As he returns to patrol, Ehalt wants people to remember the boy tie guy as someone who wants to make a difference in the community.
“I absolutely love the city more than I thought was possible as a police officer.
“And this was just a really refreshing way to show me how much the community is looking for opportunities to truly make a difference in their own community.”