the police dont pay these bounties but you’re probably at least partially right. there are a lot of technicalities with these bounties, primarily that generally the tip must be submitted to the agency offering the reward

so like usually these bounties are offered initially by a 3rd party called crime stoppers which is a nonprofit that collects and dispenses donations. but in some cases if you call the police to make the report that means you get dick because to get the money you have to submit the report to crime stoppers directly. it’s not always like this because many police departments partner with crime stoppers but sometimes it is.

sometimes (and I think it was the case here) additional funds are provided by the fbi which does pay out directly but again you have to provide the tip to them to get the cash. The initial 10k wanted poster had the crime stoppers logo on it so that was funded through them but the rest was probably funded through fbi and maybe a specific donation to crime stoppers on behalf of the family or united or something