Fifty Years Later, Crime Stoppers Still Belongs at the Top of the Investigative Toolbox

Thousands of arrests, convictions, and cleared cases make the policy argument: stop treating Crime Stoppers as a backup plan

Photo by Maria Oswalt on Unsplash

It wasn’t the sole factor that drew me to law enforcement, but it certainly was an impactful one. Officer Jim Bishop of the Orlando Police Department was a household name when I was a teenager in Central Florida. His media presence, on behalf of CrimeLine of Central Florida, had him on all the local television channels as well as several radio shows.

I met him at a lonely table as a trucking trade show at the convention center with the CrimeLine station wagon in the background. To me, as a teenager, it was like meeting a celebrity. In the early 80s, we weren’t tripping over “YouTubers” and content creators, and this officer was on all five local channels. Little did I know that ten years later I would be employed by his agency for nearly three decades and he and I would become friends.

Looking back, that was within the first ten years of modern crime stoppers programs in America. CrimeLine of Central Florida, at that time, was one of the first wildly successful replicas of the model that had begun in Albuquerque in 1976. There were other tip lines, and yes, there were wanted posters offering rewards whether the subject was dead or alive, but nothing completed the essential circle until a New Mexico Detective convinced everyone necessary to put all of the right components in the right sequence together in a loop.

This year, marks 50 years since Crime Stoppers programs began, and the origin story is worth retelling, because it explains why the model still works. In July 1976, Michael Carmen was working an extra shift at an Albuquerque gas station when he was murdered by shotgun during an armed robbery. He was a college student two weeks from getting married. Albuquerque had just been determined nationally to be the most dangerous and violent city in America. Albuquerque Police Detective Greg MacAleese was assigned the case, and after six weeks of dead ends, he had nothing.

Photo by Andreas Rasmussen on Unsplash

It was known that there was no shortage of people who saw or heard something. There was a public unwilling to talk to police, partly out of apathy and partly out of fear of retaliation.

MacAleese tried something no department had tried prior. He produced a video re-enactment of the murder, got a local television station to air it, put up his own money as a reward, and promised callers anonymity. He got with his command staff and developed a board.

The first calls that came in were for unrelated crimes but highly serious crimes, that were solved that wouldn’t have been solved otherwise. The first actionable intelligence acquired was regarding a violent sexual battery that needed only that crime stoppers tip to be solved.

Within 72 hours, a tip led police to the vehicle used in the murder of Carmen, and two suspects were arrested. That arrest became the proof of concept for what Crime Stoppers programs are today: a formal partnership between police, media, and the community. Ultimately, the suspect identified in the case, despite persuasive evidence of guilt, was released on a technicality, but his other crimes resulted in him spending the remainder of his life in prison on other valid charges.

Every program is organized around three commitments that still define Crime Stoppers today:

1) Absolute anonymity for the tipster

2) Cash reward for information that leads to an arrest

3) A board, separate from law enforcement, to manage it

Why it worked, and why it still does

“Anonymity is absolutely the cornerstone for the success of the program,” said MacAleese in a 2002 interview. His wise choice solved both halves of the problem he’d diagnosed. It removed the fear of retaliation, and it removed the social cost of being seen as a snitch. People who would never call a police tip line with their name attached will call one that guarantees they stay unknown.

Crime Stoppers USA is the national network coordinating Crime Stoppers organizations across the country, and the concept has expanded into more than 30 countries.

By the close of 2008, Crime Stoppers USA’s national network was reporting roughly 800,000 arrests and 1.2 million cases cleared since the program’s inception, along with $90 million in rewards paid and billions in recovered property and seized drugs. Crime Stoppers USA also cites a felony conviction rate of approximately 95 percent on cases that originate from a tip.

I’ve been unable to verify this information but it easy to accept as plausible: Crime Stoppers programs have been the third most influential and innovative tool for law enforcement behind latent fingerprints and DNA identification.

The P3 Tips app and the elevation to an investigative resource

For most of Crime Stoppers’ history, the tip line was a phone call. That has changed. Most local Crime Stoppers programs now run on a platform called P3 (the app is marketed as P3 Tips), which lets a tipster submit information, photos, or video from a smartphone instead of a phone call, and — critically — maintain an ongoing, encrypted, two-way conversation with the program afterward, all while staying anonymous. A tipster can be asked a follow-up question, can check on the status of an investigation, or can find out whether a reward was authorized, without ever revealing who they are.

Roughly 70 percent of all tips submitted through P3 now come through the mobile app rather than by phone.

That two-way capability is what turns Crime Stoppers from a one-shot tip line into something closer to a real investigative resource. An investigator who gets a tip with a partial license plate or a blurry photo isn’t stuck with what came in cold. They can go back to that same anonymous source and ask for more, the same way they’d follow up with any other source, just without ever knowing who they’re talking to.

In practice, that means a Crime Stoppers tip is a lead, not evidence. It tells investigators where to look. It still has to be corroborated through independent investigation, surveillance, additional witnesses, physical evidence, or other means before it can support an arrest or search warrant, let alone a conviction.

That’s exactly how it should work, and it’s also why the anonymity promise can be kept: since the tip alone never serves as the legal basis for taking someone into custody, there’s no point in a courtroom where the tipster’s identity needs to surface.

Fifty years on

What started as one detective’s improvised response to a murder with no known witnesses has become a standing piece of American law enforcement infrastructure, run by citizen boards, funded by donations and rewards, and now carried in people’s pockets through an app instead of a payphone.

The principle hasn’t changed since 1976: most crimes get solved because somebody talks, and most people will only talk if they know they’re protected.

I’m honored to serve as a board member of Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida and VP of Communications and Programs, I’ve been granted the opportunity to share the capability of crime stopper programs with law enforcement officers who now treat it as their first resource rather than their last resort.

Former police chief and mentor John O’Grady shared this leadership exercise with me. At every decision tree, we need to look at what happens if we do nothing. Police leaders and their advisors are always at this decision point on cases, but on policy we need to make this proven program the first option and resource.

Nothing would honor Detective MacAleese more than another fifty years of cases cleared!

Please keep all peace officers in your prayers.

Roland Clee served a major Florida police department as a Community Service Officer for more than 26 years. His career included uniformed patrol, training, media relations, intelligence, criminal investigations, and chief’s staff. He writes the American Peace Officer newsletter, speaks at public safety, recruiting and leadership conferences and helps local governments and public safety agencies through his business, CommandStaffConsulting.com.

His work is frequently featured on LawOfficer.com, the only law enforcement owned major media presence in the public safety realm.

For media interviews and podcast appearances, click here: http://bit.ly/40pT3NS