What is Crime Stoppers?
In 2002, Sgt. Bobby
Patterson, under the guidance of Chief Barry Carroll and
with help from other agencies who had found the program
to be useful, proposed the idea of a Crime Stoppers
program for the city. The program, a way for citizens to
anonymously provide information on crimes happening in
their neighborhoods, was approved by Chief Carroll. The
neighboring agencies of Troup County provided a great
deal of assistance on the setup of the new program that
originally only covered the City of Carrollton.
Eventually branching to include the other cities in
Carroll County, the program was incorporated and
achieved a 501(c)(3) status later that same year. The
original board consisted of 10 members from previous
Citizen’s Police Academy sessions who were invited to
serve the program.
The First Crime Stoppers Program
In July 1976, Michael
Carmen, a University of New Mexico student, was murdered
in an Albuquerque gas station. As a favor to a friend
who needed the night off, Michael had agreed to work the
extra shift in his place. That night two men came in and
robbed the store before shooting Michael in the abdomen
with a .72 gauge shotgun from less than 10 feet away.
Michael lived for more than four hours after being shot
but never gained enough strength to tell investigators
what had happened before he died on the operating table.
Detective Greg MacAleese was distraught over the case.
In the hopes of finding an eyewitness in a city of over
350,000 people, MacAleese decided to approach Max
Sklower, the general manager of KOAT-TV in Albuqueque,
about broadcasting a reenactment of the crime on one of
the station’s newscasts. The reenactment aired on the 10
o’clock news on September 8th, 1976
The very next morning Detective MacAleese received a tip
from a man who had seen the reenactment. The caller
stated he had been walking home on the night of the
murder and remembered hearing a loud bang before being
passed by a car speeding away from the direction of the
gas station. Though the man admitted he didn’t recognize
the two men he saw inside the vehicle, he did recognize
the car from a nearby apartment complex. From the
caller’s information, detectives were able to find the
vehicle and trace it back to one of the gunmen. The
second gunman was caught shortly thereafter. As a result
of the caller’s tip, Michael’s murder was solved in just
72 hours and six additional armed robbery cases were
solved.
The first call to the tip line actually had nothing to
do with the murder of Michael Carmen. The first call was
placed by a person who had information on a gang rape
that had occurred a year earlier. The suspect’s name was
given to the detective working the case. After tracking
down the suspect, the detective and victim went to the
suspect’s workplace where the victim identified the man
as one of the three men who had attacked her. He was
arrested the next week and plead guilty to his charges.
The other two offenders were also arrested and convicted
in the case.
With the success of the first reenactment and the calls
the tip line was receiving, Detective MacAleese was able
to convince the Albuquerque Police Department to
continue the program that he had designed. Detective
MacAleese recognized that information provided by the
public played a great role in solving crimes, but that a
lot of people were hesitant to volunteer information
they had. MacAleese felt that people generally didn’t
volunteer information about crimes they knew about
because of either a general lack of motivation to take
the time to do so, or a fear of possible retribution. To
help alleviate this hesitation Detective MacAleese
designed the program to allow callers to remain
completely anonymous as well as be eligible for a cash
reward for the tip or information that lead to the
solution of a major crime.
The second “Crime of the Week” in Albuquerque featured a
series of rapes. An armed rapist had abducted 13 women
from the Winrock Shopping Center over the course of a
four month period. On October 2nd, 1976 a
sketch of the suspect was printed in the Albuquerque
Tribune, and that same afternoon a caller to the tip
line provided the police with information on a possible
suspect. He stated he believed that the caller was a 22
year old man by the name of Kevin Baker. Not only did
detectives find out that Baker had a previous arrest
record, but they also discovered that Baker’s mother
worked in the shopping center the women had been
abducted from. His picture was included in a photo
lineup and he was identified by the victims. While
executing a search warrant of Baker’s home officers
found enough evidence to pursue a case against him. He
entered a guilty plea to ten of the rapes and was
sentenced to 360 years in prison.
The program, though seemingly extremely successful, was
not without problems. In October 1976, a known drug
dealer by the name of James Garcia was murdered. A tip
was received, approximately 12 hours after the body was
discovered by police, originating from someone claiming
to have seen the murder. The caller said the murderer
was Charlie McGuiness but refused to testify in the
case. He did provide a list of other eyewitnesses. One
of the eyewitnesses agreed to cooperate with
investigators and told them what had happened. The
witness also gave the names of the other eyewitnesses.
With the information from both sources a search warrant
was secured and executed at McGuinness’ home. Enough
evidence was seized for a grand jury to indict him for
the murder of James Garcia. Detective MacAleese arranged
to make a payment to the tipster. Though the payments
were normally made through the program’s board
treasurer, the tipster requested to receive payment in
person. By doing so, he revealed his identity to police.
In December, a motion for discovery was filed by
McGuinness’ attorney. The eyewitness had fled and the
tipster was the strongest piece of evidence left.
Detective MacAleese knew that the attorney would more
than likely ask about the tipster’s identity, and that
if the identity of a caller was revealed the entire
program’s credibility would be destroyed. He was asked,
but he refused to give up the name even though he faced
the possibility of jail time. The judge finally agreed
that by revealing the identity of the tipster the
program would be ruined and ruled that the name did not
have to be revealed.
His identity was eventually revealed four months later
after being arrested for heroin possession. A deal was
made where the tipster would agree to testify in
exchange for his charges being reduced. McGuinness was
convicted of 1st degree murder and the
program’s credibility was saved.
In the first year of the program in Albuquerque, 288
cases were solved and over $300,000 worth of property
was recovered. 35 people were tried in court and all 35
were convicted.
The response from the community and other states was
overwhelmingly positive. The program was featured on The
Today Show on NBC as well as in several newspapers and
magazines. Other departments began to send
representatives from their departments to learn more
about the program and requesting information on how to
start their own programs. Crime Stoppers-USA was created
under the direction of Coleman Tily and Detective
MacAleese in 1979 to be the parent agency to the new
programs. Guidelines and operations manuals were
formalized under the parent agency. In 1983 the program
became known as Crime Stoppers International when
Calgary, Alberta, Canada and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
joined the program. There are now over 950 Crime
Stoppers programs in over 18 countries.
More than 425,000 crimes have been solved and over $2.9
billion in stolen property and narcotics has been
recovered since that original reenactment in September
of 1976. |
