History
1976, Albuquerque, New Mexico… A young man working as a clerk in an all-night convenience store was taken by surprise one evening when two men came into the store with bad intentions. The two men robbed the clerk and before making their getaway, took the attendant's life. After six weeks of investigation, the police had made little headway and turned to the media for assistance. Thanks to the help they received from the local media and the community, within a short period of time, Albuquerque Police gained the information needed to arrest both men for murder.
Crime Stoppers
Soon after the incident, the Albuquerque Police Department started the first program of its kind, giving the community the opportunity to share information and assist the local authorities in solving felony criminal activity, and aptly named it “Crime Stoppers”. Soon after the induction of Crime Stoppers into the Albuquerque Law Enforcement scene, the Phoenix Police Department in Phoenix, Arizona followed suit and created their own community call-in program and named it “Phoenix Silent Witness”. Today there are over 1,100 Crime Stoppers/Silent Witness programs around the globe.
To
Only five years after the creation of Crime Stoppers in Albuquerque, NM, came the formation of Yavapai Silent Witness (YSW) by the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office (YCSO) in 1981. Although the names are different, the concept is exactly the same—giving the community the opportunity to play a pertinent role in fighting crime and criminal apprehension in Yavapai County.
Yavapai Silent Witness
Although YSW was managed both at the Prescott Police Department and Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office throughout the first 27 years of its existence, February of 2008, under the authority of Yavapai County Sheriff, Steve Waugh (retired), the program made its permanent home at the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office in order to better serve the residents of the community. On a 24-hour daily basis, employees of YCSO answer the toll free (1-800) phone line and a fulltime YCSO employee acts as the Program Director. The program relies on calls from the public with information regarding criminal activity. Along with the calls from community members, the media assists by advertising unsolved crimes and wanted felons, and law enforcement agencies within Yavapai County investigate the calls received. Yavapai Silent Witness attributes its success to these three entities.