Anonymous Tips and Florida Criminal Cases
In September 2025, police arrested 19 defendants in Boynton Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and other locations in South Florida as the result of an investigation by the Boynton Beach Police Department, known as Operation Trackside. In making the arrests, they confiscated more than five kilograms of drug powders, most of which were cocaine and fentanyl, presumably destined for mixing with filler ingredients for resale. They also seized eight vehicles, a boat, eight weapons, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. The arrests were the result of an investigation that lasted for more than a year. It began in July 2024, when someone sent an anonymous letter to the Boynton Beach Police Department. Writing letters is rare these days; the old ladies who write to advice columns and complain that their grandchildren do not acknowledge their birthday gifts with handwritten thank you notes would be overjoyed that the tipster had sent the tip through the postal mail, and discussion boards dedicated to stylometry would buzz with excitement. Here, our Miami criminal defense lawyer explains the role of anonymous tips in criminal investigations and how it takes more than an anonymous tip to convict someone of a crime.
How Does Anonymous Tip Reporting Work?
Anonymous tip reporting is nothing new in criminology. As long as literacy rates have been high enough that members of the public could write letters without risking revealing their identities by the mere act of writing, people have been sending letters to the police anonymously. Until recently, if you wanted to call the police without them tracing your call, you could call from a pay phone, and it is still theoretically possible to call the police anonymously today if you use a burner phone.
No one is anonymous on the Internet, though. Forensic science is simply too advanced. The police can find out who you are unless they go out of their way not to. Some police departments have set up anonymous online reporting systems. You can submit a tip anonymously through the police department’s website or app. The system will remove your name and contact information and not show it to the police. Some of these systems have two-way communication features where the police can text the tipster back without seeing the tipster’s name or phone number.
After receiving the tip, the police may ask follow up questions, especially if they have a two-way anonymous tip system. Next, they will look for evidence that corroborates the tip; they may or may not find corroborating evidence. In other words, an anonymous tip is only one part of a criminal investigation.
Why Do People Report Tips Anonymously?
When people report tips to the police anonymously, it is sometimes because they fear making themselves vulnerable to criminal prosecution. If an investigation arising from an anonymous tip leads police to question you, you have the right to hire a criminal defense lawyer, and you have the right to plead the Fifth Amendment if police ask you a question for which a truthful answer could lead to you being charged with a crime. Another reason that people might report tips to the police anonymously is if they fear retaliation from the people they implicate in their tips, or the associates of the people they implicate.
Anonymous Tips and Probable Cause
An anonymous tip does not, by itself, count as probable cause which would enable the police to get an arrest warrant or a search warrant. The police can only establish probable cause if they find additional evidence that the tipster’s claims are true. If the tipster said that you were selling drugs in front of the 7-Eleven on Hollywood Boulevard, this does not count as probable cause. Based on your tip, the police might ask the management of 7-Eleven for security camera footage from their store, and this footage could count as probable cause if it appears to show you selling drugs.
Can Anonymous Tips Be Used as Evidence at Your Trial?
Just as an anonymous tip is not sufficient to establish probable cause for your arrest, it is unlikely that the prosecution would try to enter it as evidence or that the court would declare it admissible if they did. The evidence that corroborates the anonymous tip can, however, be shown to the jury at your trial.
Contact Our Criminal Defense Attorneys
A South Florida criminal defense lawyer can help you seek justice if you were charged with a crime based on an anonymous tip. Contact Ratzan & Faccidomo in Miami, Florida for a confidential consultation about your case.
Sources:
wptv.com/news/region-s-palm-beach-county/boynton-beach/17-people-arrested-as-result-of-14-month-long-drug-trafficking-investigation
policechiefmagazine.org/tip411-anonymous-tip-technology-helps-law-enforcement-solve-crimes/#:~:text=You%20can%20send%20anonymous%20tips,to%20you%20back%20and%20forth.
