This footage includes eleven edited segments for 24 Action News on Austin’s KVUE-TV. The first four segments include commercials for 24 Action News and its association with the Crime Stoppers program, including a promo for a special report on crime in Austin, as well as more general commercials about the effectiveness of the program and how to call in tips. The next six segments contain Crime Stoppers updates aired on 24 Action News. Most of these follow-ups refer to arrests made based on a tip made to Crime Stoppers, but also include brief reports about the program itself. The last segment features another promo for the Crime Stoppers program, showing the timeline of a particular case, from the committing of a crime to the airing of a dramatization on 24 Action News to the arrest and indictment of the accused. Roy Faires produced the dramatizations seen on 24 Action News. He worked as a special project director and entertainment critic/reporter at KVUE-TV, Austin’s ABC affiliate, from 1976-1989.
Crime Stoppers is a program that reenacts crimes and encourages citizens to call in with tips about the case, ensuring their anonymity. The idea was developed in 1975 after the murder of a young man in Alberquerque, New Mexico went unsolved. Detective Greg MacAleese had the idea to go to a local television station and encourage them to reenact the crime for viewers, and he offered a reward to anyone who assisted in an arrest. A caller recognized the situation and offered information, but preferred to remain anonymous. This showed authorities the importance of community involvement in solving crimes, and regional divisions of Crime Stoppers now operate all over the United States, having lead to many successful arrests. Since its inception in 1976, Crime Stoppers in the United States has been responsible for more than half a million arrests and more than $4 billion in recovered property.
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