This footage features an edited promo for Crime Stoppers International, showing how “Crime Stoppers pays for everyone... except the criminal.” Produced by Roy Faires, the segment promotes Crime Stoppers programs by illustrating their success. Faires chronicles a sampling of Austin-area cases that were cleared by Crime Stoppers after being featured as the Crime of the Week on KVUE-TV’s 24 Action News. He also spotlights the creator of the Crime Stoppers program, Greg MacAleese, a police detective from Albuquerque. Faires concludes by outlining how Crime Stoppers operates -- from the commitment involved by police, the community, and the media, to the process of calling in a tip. Faires 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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