ST. LOUIS—Missouri’s confidential hotline to alert authorities to threats of school violence has received more than 1,100 tips this year, surpassing the amount it took in all of 2022.

Spectrum News reviewed data from the Highway Patrol, which manages the program, after authorities and school officials praised its use in getting an armed juvenile suspect in custody quickly after making a threat against Ritenour High School earlier this week.

Courage2Report Missouri is a 24/7 service available via phone, web, mobile app or text and is the outgrowth of Missouri’s School Violence Hotline that began in 2001. It became available around the clock in 2019 when it received its current name.

The service is encouraged for reporting school shooting threats, assaults, sexual offenses, bullying and planned suicides. Information taken by the hotline gets shared with school and law enforcement officials.

In the case of the Ritenour incident earlier this week, a student saw the threat posted on social media and reported it to Courage2Report. Other students saw the threat and also reported it to building administrators. The suspect was in custody less than 25 minutes later.

Through Tuesday, the service has taken in 1,132 tips in 2024, with the caveat that multiple tips could be tied to a single incident. In 2023, it took in 1,581 tips and in 2022 there were 1,044.

Between July 1 and Tuesday, the hotline received 481 tips, including what the Highway Patrol categorized as 102 school shooting threats and 14 planned school attacks. 

The state of Illinois has operated a similar system, known as Safe2Help since 2021. According to the program’s most recent posted annual report, it received 817 incident reports in 2022. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security has not responded to a request for more recent data.