History
Our Crime Stoppers program got its start in 1979 when reporter Neil Murray, who had been working for a Hubbard broadcasting affiliate in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was transferred to KSTP-TV Channel 5. Station owner Stanley E. Hubbard included in Neil’s contract that he was to help create a Crime Stoppers program to mirror the one started in Albuquerque.
Initially, this was accomplished through the cooperation and participation of the Minneapolis and St. Paul Police Departments. Because of the widespread need and the evolution of technology, our program has expanded to serve, assist, and benefit law enforcement agencies throughout the entire state of Minnesota.
MacAleese, who had worked for a newspaper before joining the Albuquerque Police Department, knew that something innovative would be necessary to encourage the public to get involved and help solve the murder.
He conceived the idea of producing a video re-enactment of the homicide, guaranteeing anonymity for anyone willing to call him with information, and he even offered a reward from his own pocket to encourage someone to provide a lead that would help identify those responsible for Carmen's murder. It seemed almost unnecessary to take such extraordinary steps to solve the killing of Carmen; it was a case that should have outraged the community and brought forth many witnesses.
Carmen was only two weeks away from getting married and had taken an extra shift at the gas station to give a co-worker the night off. When police responded to an emergency call, they found Carmen gravely wounded. He had been shot in the abdomen at point-blank range with a 12-gauge shotgun. The medical staff kept him alive for four hours, during which time he tried to tell detectives who was responsible, but he just didn't have the strength to form the words.
At that time, Albuquerque had one of the highest per capita crime rates in the country, and people were afraid to help the police.
MacAleese’s plan to identify those responsible for Carmen's killing worked. Within a few hours after the re-enactment of the murder was broadcast on television station KOAT, he received a phone call. The video had triggered the memory of a person who heard a loud bang in the vicinity of the gas station and then saw a car driving off. The caller told MacAleese that the vehicle belonged to a resident in a nearby apartment complex.
Through investigation, MacAleese and a team of detectives arrested two men within 72 hours and charged them with Carmen's murder and a string of armed robberies. MacAleese received other calls following the re-enactment, including one that helped police solve the rape of a young woman. Realizing that this type of program could be useful in fighting crime, MacAleese convinced the Albuquerque Police Department to allow a group of citizens to establish the first Crime Stoppers program.
With the naming of the program, there is a connection to the fictional detective Dick Tracy, for whom cartoonist Chester Gould produced a Crime Stoppers textbook that became part of his weekly cartoon strip, providing hints to young readers and members of his Junior Crime Stoppers Club on how to fight crime in their neighborhoods. Detective MacAleese met with Chester Gould when the initial Crime Stoppers program was being formed and received permission from Mr. Gould to separate the words "Crime Stoppers" to protect the trademark that he had established. Therefore, when naming their programs, Crime Stoppers should recognize that the two words need to be separated by a space to avoid any trademark infringement.
For his efforts, Detective MacAleese was named one of the people in the 1970s who changed the face of the United States and was also honored as the country's Police Officer of the Year. It is also interesting to note that since adopting Crime Stoppers, Albuquerque's crime rate has dropped significantly and is no longer ranked among the 20 cities with the highest per capita crime rates.