Newspaper Ads Help Capture 50 Offenders; Photographs Will Now Be Featured in Shopping Centers

March 24, 2009

Wednesday Mayor Richard J. Berry announced the 50th property crime offender has been arrested as a direct result of the ad in the Albuquerque Journal. The ad features names and mug shots of wanted property crime offenders.

Nancy Plumley was arrested late Thursday by members of the Albuquerque Police Repeat Offender Project Unit after someone called Crime Stoppers and reported her whereabouts.

Plumley was featured in Friday’s Albuquerque Journal “Most Wanted Property Crime Offender” advertisement. So far the city has published four advertisements in the newspaper featuring about 120 of the city’s top property crime offenders. Plumley was the 50th capture.

“Fifty of this city’s top property crime offenders have learned that Albuquerque is a bad place to be a criminal,” Mayor Berry said. “Although we have made a lot of progress, our work is not done. We will make 50 more arrests in the months to come.”

The Journal ad features 30 of the city’s most wanted property crime offenders. The city began running the ad in December as a part of Mayor Richard J. Berry’s initiative to combat property crime. It appears in the Journal every third Friday. The city also publishes offenders on 10 electronic billboards.

On Wednesday, Mayor Berry also announced that a much larger version of the same ad published in the Journal will now be display in shopping centers The display is 6-foot tall. The city is working with local shopping centers and hopes to have the displays up by the end of the week.

“This is a great partnership between the city and the private sector,” Mayor Berry said. “All of us are working together to fight property crime.”

A copy of the ad can also be downloaded on the police department’s web site at cabq.gov/police. The ad has generated hundreds of Crime Stoppers tips and officers have been known to carry the ad with them in their patrol cars. Businesses have also posted the advertisement in their stores. People who call Crime Stoppers reporting the whereabouts of an offender are eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.

The newspaper ads cost about $4,000 which is paid for through DWI seizure money.