Reported by Laraine Lasdon
President Dale called the September 13th meeting to Order. Nadir Abdeladim led the Pledges, Arnold
Garcia gave the Invocation and Hannah Walker led the Four Way Test. Rick Ravel greeted members
and guests as they arrived and Myron Burse introduced all of our guests and visitors.
Events and Announcements
Ellen Hunt gave us an overview of the Global Grants program and specific projects for the coming year.
Tilley Castillo and Bill Davies gave an announcement about the upcoming Membership Soiree on Friday,
September 23rd. Make sure you RSVP with Ann Graham (AnnGraham@sbcglobal.net).
It was announced that sadly, longtime member Vaughn Alexander passed away. We will miss him.
Michael Portman presented Paul Harris Fellowships to Jim Gdula (PHF) and Edis Oliver (PHF +2).
Congratulations, Jim and Edis!
Diana Dukes, Capital Area Crime Stoppers
Steve Stearns introduced speaker Diana Dukes, Executive Director of Capital Area Crime Stoppers since
2001.
Diana outlined the structure of how Crime Stoppers works noting that past Rotarian and KVUE GM Joe
Jerkins began the program in 1979! The three key areas are: 1. The Public 2. The Media and 3. Local Law
enforcement.
Money is raised to reward those tips leading to an arrest. KVUE is still the prime media sponsor.
All tips are 100% anonymous thereby allowing people to call, text or email what they know with encrypted
data. This is the cornerstone of the program and also allows local law enforcement to go into areas and follow up credible leads with a very high success rate.
APD has an Intel Unit dedicated to the program that also works with the FBI and other agencies across the
country and the world. No city funding is used. All funds are raised from the grassroots up with golf
tournaments and other fund raisers.
Two APD officers from the Intel division, Chris Chandlar and Justin Miller, were in attendance and came
up to the podium to share some stories and answer questions. Rotarians were very appreciative of their work and their responsiveness to questions.
Diana summed up by saying there were 200 Crime Stopper programs in Texas and 1,000 nationwide. To date $1M in reward money has been given to people whose leads led to an arrest. That is the main goal of the program. Today there is also a Campus Crime Stopper program and technology is widely used — apps, text and e-mail are all available to the public to call in their tips.