Crime Stoppers in Action – October
Our latest NEWS! BIG, BIG NEWS!
October was an exciting month for us as we celebrated our 35th anniversary andunveiled our plans for Houston’s First Public Safety and Crime Prevention Block, a mission-driven monument to crime prevention and a highly efficient, secure hub for our centralized operations, staff, volunteers, victims, law enforcement and media teams. At our 2015 Gala, we officially announced the name of this first Crime Stoppers headquarters in the nation, “The Dave Ward Building: Crime Stoppers of Houston”. This was all a BIG surprise to our friend and Houston media icon Mr. Dave Ward, ABC-13.
Additionally, we joined in the nationwide efforts for Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM) and, in partnership with Verizon, reached out to the community at large to engage them in a stand against the physical, sexual and emotional abuse that strives in silence and affects millions. At the beginning of the month we hosted a Safe Community Seminar where we discussed domestic violence and its staggering impact on our community with panelists from the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, Harris County District Attorney’s Office and Houston Police Department’s Special Victims Division. What made the morning truly special was the courage of domestic violence victims to speak up and share their very personal stories with us.
We also announced the 10 most wanted domestic violence fugitives in Harris County at a press conference. Two weeks later 3 of them had been apprehended! Later in the month a week long Crime Stoppers Family Violence Initiative was conducted by Harris County Sheriff Office (HCSO) Criminal Warrants investigators and resulted in the successfully clearing of 52 warrants (misdemeanor and felony) along with 2 new felony charges. HCSO Reserve investigators also participated and were responsible for clearing 3 misdemeanor warrants after normal business hours.
Throughout all of October we followed up on that crucial topic with interesting facts and trends, important prevention tips (download flyer here), insightful testimonials of survivors (visit our website to read their blog entries) and diligent media outreach. Among others, we spoke to Access Houston on 97.9 The Box and BOOM 92 about the devastating consequences of domestic violence and crucial prevention tips everyone should consider (click here to listen to the interview).
Beyond our focus on domestic violence, we continued our SAFE SCHOOL efforts with presentations at YES Prep North Central, Galena Park Middle School, and many others where we discussed internet safety, current trends in criminal activity and crime prevention on campus with the students. Knowing that school violence is preventable – sometimes, 100% preventable – we also educated them on how to identify threats to their school campus, how to safely and anonymously report criminal activity to Crime Stoppers and encouraged them to say something if they see something. To spread that important message even further we took on the opportunities to inform about school safety and our free program on ABC 13 and KPRC 2.
In response to the Umpqua Community College Shooting we took an active stand against campus violence with an article in The Buzz Magazines (read full article here).
We also reached out to our communities on National Night Out with important NNO safety tips and an insightful blog entry on our website “A Going Away Party for Neighborhood Crime”; provided important Halloween safety tips to keep our little trick or treaters safe on that very special night; and spoke up against animal cruelty on Houston Television and KPRC 950AM.
- Received 651 tips
- 7 tips – Solved felony cases
- 38 tips – Executed felony warrants
- Arrested 34 suspects
- Solved/executed 45 cases
- Cleared 27 offense reports
- Paid 40 anonymous informants
Crime Stoppers assisted law enforcement to locate and arrest a fugitive who severely injured a 10-month old baby causing life-altering mental and physical impairment. On October 15, we held a press conference featuring fugitive Joe Benny Salazar and many of our media partners covered this disturbing case. A day after our press conference, we received an anonymous tip that the suspect accused of crushing the baby’s skull had been seen with the child’s mother and could be located with her. The investigators followed up on that tip and found them together at the complainant’s mother’s apartment. Authorities not only apprehended this violent criminal off our streets, Houston Police Department also charged and arrested the child’s mother for harboring and hiding this fugitive from law enforcement!
- Solved 6 school – based cases
Posted by on 2 Dec 2015