The Crime Stoppers concept was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the late 1970's . A detective there had several unsolved murders that he knew people had information about(That detective was Greg MacAlese.). The problem was that people were not coming forward with information --for fear of reprisals, not wishing to get involved, or because of apathy. Greg had one case in particular that he knew there had to be witnesses to. A service station on a busy roadway was robbed and the attendant shot and killed right next to the roadway, during peak traffic hours. Greg convinced the prosecutors to guarantee that anyone that gave information would remain anonymous; then he got some local businessmen to put up a $1000 cash reward. Next he got a local television station to air a re-enactment of the crime during its newcasts. Within hours of the re-enactment being shown on tv there was a call that named the murderers!! This was the beginning of the Crime Stoppers movement that today is international in scope. There are programs in Canada, England, Germany, Australia, and other Pacific Rim countries as well as the hundreds of programs in the US. Killeen Crime Stoppers was originally proposed in 1979. After extensive research and coordination with local media, community leaders and the police department, Killeen's Crime Stoppers program began operations in 1981. Since then, the program has received a dozen or so awards from Crime Stoppers International, and the Texas State Crime Stoppers Commission. The program has been recognized for the most cases cleared, as well as the highest dollar amount of stolen property and narcotics recovered (for a program in a city of 55,000 to 99,000.). As are all Crime Stoppers programs, the Killeen program is administered by a civilian, volunteer board of directors. This board raises money for the reward fund through various fund raising acitivites. They determine the amount of each reward and administer the maintenance of records. The Killeen Police Department provides a police coordinator to the program. He is responsible for the handling of tip information, the crime of the week, liaison between the media, the board and the police department and other law enforcement agencies. The media participates by publicizing the "crime of the week" and the activities of the program. The Killeen Crime Stoppers Program has helped solve cases in 13 different states(including a murder in Virginia) by aiding in the arrest of the murder suspects here in Killeen.