Founder of Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama dies at 81, organization leaders praise his impact
As family and friends say their final goodbyes to former Birmingham Police Sgt. Doug McBee, leaders at Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama are praising the impact he had on solving crime.
Back in 1981, McBee was sent by then Birmingham Police Chief Bill Myers to New Mexico for a conference to learn how Crime Stoppers worked.
A year later, in 1982, Crime Stoppers of Birmingham was formed. Over time, it became Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama.
"They were in a basement of City Hall, and the first tips they got were on a bank robbery and solve that robbery," Ken Atkinson with Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama said. "And then they realized, hey, this works. And so I think it was just another tool. It's really evolved. I mean, like I said back then, it was for the city of Birmingham, but now we are a metro area. We cover not only Birmingham, we cover all over Jefferson County, Shelby County, Saint Clair County, Cullman County. And so we cover a much wider area, serve a much greater audience."
While some things have changed, the goal of the program has not.
"This gives the public a chance to stay anonymous and to give the information to police, to help, to provide a tip, to hopefully solve a case," Atkinson said.
Since its inception, Atkinson said, Crime Stoppers has helped police solve more than 9,000 felony cases through the thousands of tips that have come through the anonymous system.
Those tips have amounted to more than $1.6 million in reward money given out to tipsters over the last four decades.
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As family and friends now prepare to say goodbye to McBee, Atkinson said he wants everyone to know the impact he had on how crimes are solved in Central Alabama.
"We continue each and every day we pay, you know, some tips out yesterday on some cases, some theft cases and stuff," Atkinson said. "So each and every day we continue to get those tips and send them to police."
McBee's celebration of life is scheduled for Thursday at , located at 5252 Hwy 78 East in Irondale. Visitation: is 11:00 a.m. to 12 p.m. Instead of Flowers donations may be made to the church's Good Samaritan Fund.