KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Crime Stoppers TIPS Hot Line coordinators say a campaign of intimidation is keeping many unsolved crimes unsolved.

"For a family member or friend, man, I'll do it. But if I don't know the person, what could I do?" asked one Kansas City resident.

LaMont Williams, whose nephew Marcus was killed by a bullet from a passing car a year ago, said, "I'm sure someone knows who did it. They may not have been at the scene, but that person who committed the murder knows someone and talked to someone about committing that type of thing."

Marcus Williams was a father of two and had no criminal record. His family recently held a vigil in his memory, asking for information from anyone who knows anything about not only Marcus' killing, but all the other unsolved homicides.

"If the community can come together and start saying, 'This is what happened. He's the one who did it,' then maybe these people that are committing these crimes would think twice before they do something crazy," he said

Some people say they simply won't call the hot line. Many even take it to the extreme, police say, wearing "Don't Snitch" or "Stop Snitching" T-shirts.

"Actually, I wouldn't call," said one Kansas Citian who wished to remain anonymous. "Yeah, because I got one of them T-shirts. But I don't wear it cuz of this area. I don't want nobody to get offended I'm wearing something like that."

"Let's turn the table around and what if it's you?" said Sgt. Doug Neimeier, with the Kansas City Police Homicide Division. "What if it's your family? What if it's your brother? What if it's your parent? Then what are you going to do? Then you're going to be out there crying, 'My family needs help!'"

So why don't people call?

Kansas Citian Mia Conley said she would call the hot line. But she said, "There's a lot of wicked stuff going on out here, and I think people don't speak up because they're afraid of what might happen to them and their family."

Despite the Don't Snitch campaign, TIPS Hot Line organizers said they haven't yet seen a drop in the number of calls they're getting.

"The right thing to do is to help the victim, not help the person who did the bad thing get away," Neimeier said.