Case Study: Philadelphia Police Department achieves anonymous, secure SMS tip line and increased citizen engagement with Twilio

Philadelphia Police Department Uses Twilio SMS for Anonymous Crime Tips

The Philadelphia Police Department wanted to boost citizen engagement and make reporting crime easier by letting residents send anonymous tips via text. Their challenge was to launch a secure, scalable SMS tip line that preserved sender anonymity while allowing the Real‑Time Crime Center to respond to emergencies and handle growing message volumes.

Partnering with Hyaline Creative and Twilio, the department deployed a Twilio‑powered tip line in weeks—built in days and later migrated to an approved short code—using Programmable SMS and messaging APIs to route messages to investigators while masking phone numbers. The service has been widely adopted, producing increasing, actionable tips (for example, a hit‑and‑run plate number) and making Philadelphia the first city to operate an anonymous municipal SMS short code.

Philadelphia Police

Karima Zedan

Director of Communications