Paul DelPonte
Executive Director
Keynote Address
Ohio Crime Prevention Association
Take a Bite Out of Crime®, Again
April 22, 2024
Columbus, Ohio
I hope you are hungry. Really, really hungry. Because we are going to Take A Bite Out of Crime®, again. And you need to be hungry because crime doesn’t taste very good. But that has never stopped Ohio.
Ohio is home to many things. The home of presidents. The home of Cincinnati Chili. The home of football. The home of the NCAA Woman’s Basketball Final Four. The home of heroes John Glenn and Neil Armstrong. The home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And, because of everything you have done and will continue to do, Ohio is the home of crime prevention.
I couldn’t be happier to be with you today. I joined McGruff during the tail end of the COVID pandemic and lockdown. And everyone kept telling me, “You’ve got to go to Ohio. They have so much going on.” And you sure do. The Ohio Crime Prevention Association was one of the first groups to start meeting in person after COVID that year. I was thrilled to meet with you then, and I’m even more excited to be back with you today.
A big thanks to our previous speakers for providing the building blocks of how and why Amerians can Take A Bite Out of Crime®, again. There are things everyone can do to keep us safer.
This morning’s speaker detailed the tremendous drop in Ohio crime rates. And I’m sure everyone has seen the headlines and heard the statistics. “Historic Drop in Violent Crime.” “Crime Rates Drop After COVID Surge.” “Crime Hits Record Low.”
But there is a nagging concern. So let me take advantage of this tremendous audience of crime prevention leaders and conduct a little survey of our own.
With a show of hands, how many people had someone come up to them in the last week and say, “Crime rates are dropping. That is great news.” Hands up. How about in the past month? How about ever?
Well, let me help you feel a little better, and I’m going to give you a big thank you. Both Columbus and Cleveland are among the 10 U.S. cities with the biggest drop in homicides this year.
But the American public doesn’t see it. They don’t feel it. They are nervous. They worry about walking to their cars after a Reds or Browns game. They worry about where their kids are spending time online, and even about their kids going to school. They worry about when they’re going to synagogue and other houses of worships. They worry about being scammed when they answer the phone.
McGruff senses the public unease in his bones. You can hear it when you talk to parents about dangers online. You can hear it when you talk to older people who worry about going to the grocery store. You can hear it when you talk to young women who worry every time they go out for a run.
Each month, ABC News and Ipsos tracks the issues Americans care about the most. For the last two years or longer, crime has ranked in the top three. And in some recent months, it was number one, even higher than concerns about inflation or jobs. One of the other top three issue is immigration, which many Americans link to concern about crime.
So if you think Americans feel safe, think again.
To better answer the why, let’s step into a time machine and go back to Sunday, March 7,1965. I know what some of you are thinking. 1965…. How long is this guy going to talk. But don’t worry, I like to move fast.
And after we get out of the time machine, McGruff wants me to share his Six Steps to a Safer America.
It was on that Sunday when a young John Lewis led a march of peaceful protestors across the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama. On the other side of the bridge was the mayor and an army of state troopers ready to stop them. Stop them that day they did, but they left an indelible image in the mind of the public, a perception that law enforcement still struggles with today.
Time didn’t make things get much easier. The turbulent 60s were marked by an almost never-ending stream of protests, marches, and riots. Ohio witnessed how a college war protest turned tragic.
John Lennon asked us to “Imagine” people living as one, as politicians clamored for law and order.
As the politics of protest seemed to be settling down, another transformation was happening. It was playing out in cities like Akron, Cleveland, Dayton, Youngstown, and other places that helped build our nation. Post-industrial decline along the rustbelt, saw “a runaway American dream”. As working-class communities faced hard times, crime rose. But Ohio was Born to Run and this very organization was started. Crime prevention efforts sprung up across this great state and in other communities in the U.S. Ohio knew that some problems, like how do you replace a large factory after the jobs leave, take time to fix. But crime prevention would make wanna be crooks and criminals think again.
Soon there was a blood hound to the rescue. He didn’t even have a name yet, but people listened. And he taught, and people learned.
The 1980s took us Back to the Future, as “morning in America” played out like a thriller. Public service announcements, school visits, countless public events, teaching the public and training law enforcement to Take a Bite Out of Crime®. America learned you could stop a crime.
Into the 1990s and Ohio didn’t stop. The Berlin Wall came tumbling down ending the cold war.
We played Midnight Basketball to keep kids off the streets at night as we danced to the Macarena.
We got onto the onramp of the information superhighway and drove across the bridge into the 21st century. We entered the cyber age fearless, without stop lights, seat belts, child safety seats, or air bags. The excitement of You’ve Got Mailstarted making us Sleepless in Seatle.
A lot changed on September 11, 2001, as foreign terrorists struck us at home. The nation witnessed the heroic actions of our police and other first responders. America came up for a rising. A new Department of Homeland Security emerged, and new challenges were put on local law enforcement. Crime rates continued to drop, but people had to think again if they felt any safer.
As the nation yearned for hope and change, crime rates continued to drop. Think Americans felt safer? Think again. Mass shooting after mass shooting left us feeling vulnerable and less safe.
Hollywood sent us a different kind of blockbuster in the form of the Me Too movement. America’s most famous women came out as victims of sexual assault. This brought other women to come forward and draw the nation’s attention to crimes that are all too easy to sweep under the rug. If some people felt safer, women were saying, think again.
Then along came the George Floyd murder and a clammer to defund the police. The ghost of Selma rose up and forced us to think again.
Just as we thought we beat crack and cocaine; the opioid crisis began devastating communities across Ohio and the nation and made us think again about drug abuse.
Our state attorneys general took big pharma to court for over marketing and over prescribing and won record settlements to end the opioid prescribing abuses. Then cartels and drug dealers jumped into a growing market and told us to think again.
As our time machine returns us to April 2024, America’s addiction to cheap knock-off purses and sneakers turned deadly with the sale of fake pills containing lethal amounts of fentanyl.
Crime is more global even as it strikes locally in our own homes. Criminals are more treacherous. Artificial intelligence, sophisticated supply chains, social media apps, and other tools have changed the way crooks do business. It’s time for everyone in crime prevention to think again.
Combine all this with deep political divisions during an election year where crime will be front and center of a loud debate. No wonder Taylor Swift pines it, “must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero.”
What do we know for sure in 2024? Well, we know John Lennon died from gun violence. The King of Pop left us too soon. Bruce Springsteen just dropped another album. Taylor Swift likes football players. And we still don’t know what the heck the Macarena was about.
So what else do we know? If you think the public thinks about crime in rational ways, think again. Concern about crime boils down to one word: fear. Fear is seldom rational behavior, but it usually leads to bad decisions, especially when it comes to crime and public policy.
Crime is emotional. People get hurt, sometimes worse. It shows up on our televisions and even in the palm of our hands as people share real-time crime scene videos.
Let’s look at Defund the Police. Now I’m sure this will give me a big show of hands. Who thinks Defund the Police is a really bad idea?
I could spend the next hour going into great detail on why Defund the Police is perhaps the worst policy position in U.S. history. The evidence and statistics would be overwhelming. Even Barack Obama has said as much. But all the statistics in the world won’t change an irrational and preconceived notion. Now let’s cross over to the right side of the political spectrum. You hear lots of talk about how closing the border will make criminals magically disappear. Well, that and getting the immigrants out of sanctuary cities. Again, the statistics don’t add up. But data don’t outweigh fear.
Boil that down and you can better see why so many Americans think crime is getting worse.
If we can’t change our perceptions about crime, what can we do? We can unite people from all political stripes to be part of the solution. Americans are hungry to Take A Bite Out of Crime Again. Let’s feed that appetite and build a safer country.
It is time to think again and create a national crime prevention plan.
Think law enforcement alone can stop crime? Think again.
At the most basic level, you can’t have “public” safety without the “public”. You can’t expect much public involvement without public trust or with strained relationships. That goes to the very heart of what crime prevention is all about. McGruff isn’t a superhero with a cape flying faster than a speeding bullet. He is a talking dog in a trench coat. It’s his job to teach us and it is our job to learn. From the right, to the left, and everyone in between Americans want to stop crime before it happens.
Look at it this way, there is no National Crime Promotion Council. So McGruff can do this, but he needs everyone’s help.
People trust McGruff. Adults, like most of us in this room, remember McGruff. In a recent survey 8 out of 10 adults told us they would act on advice from McGruff. And more and more of our younger people are getting to know McGruff. Three public service announcements have been seen more than 2 billion times. McGruff is on every major social media platform, even the ones we don’t like, because that’s where people are. And wherever there are people, there is criminal activity.
His most recent TV ad was a runner up for a Clio Award, those are the Oscars of advertising. It would have been nice to win the big one, but coming in third will just make us work harder. It did put us in the big leagues. And I like to be fair, but I will say watch your back Ben Affleck and Dunkin. We’ve got more in the works. McGruff is on the NASCAR circuit, and he is showing up at other professional sporting events. And you can get toy McGruff race cars at a Walmart near you.
But if you go to the McGruff Shop on our website as our friends you can use the code “OCPA” at checkout for a discount. And here’s an interesting little tidbit. When I talked about how long it can take for an industry to re-tool, our McGruff shirts are now made right here in the USA by members of the United Steel Workers.
Where should be the focus to help put the public at ease? The best place to start is always to meet people where they are, so we can move forward together. It’s not about who is right and who is wrong. It’s about the common ground. The basic premise is that crime can be prevented.
The public is very health conscious and crime prevention is health promotion. I will go even one step further. For the U.S. to become a healthier nation, a concerted national crime prevention strategy is the only prescription that will offer a real cure. Probably even more than if Planet Fitness gave everyone a free membership.
Just as crime rates are dropping, so too is life expectancy in the U.S. That’s not a good thing. An increasing life expectancy—going back to ancient times—has always been the defining mark of a successful civilization. For the first time in our nation’s almost 250-year history, life expectancy started to drop with the COVID pandemic. The vaccine and other public health measures have thankfully put that under control.
But life expectancy is still dropping. The factors contributing to the drop can be summed up in three words: Guns, drugs, and cars. Hmmm, wasn’t that a Tim McGraw song?
Put it another way. Getting shot, taking illicit drugs, or being involved in a D.U.I. crash are bad for your health. Very bad.
Doctors and other medical professionals can’t reduce deaths from guns, drugs and automobiles without the help of law enforcement. Uniting medical professionals, along with business leaders, community activists, parents, teachers, and others into a crime prevention movement will save lives.
So here are McGruff’s Six-Steps To A Safer America.
Number one. Prevent violent crime.
Gun deaths rise even as violent crime drops. More powerful and accurate weapons have turned an attempted murder case into a murder. What the public often hears is an unproductive debate between the need for gun control and sending thoughts and prayers. Crime prevention can and needs to offer alternatives.
There is emerging consensus on the effectiveness of community violence intervention. We just heard from two of the top experts on the subject. A study coming out of Cleveland State shows that 80 percent of gun murders are crimes of passion. Warring gangs, tied to a criminal financial enterprise, make up a big chunk of the rest. The motivation for each is different. They require different strategies.
Crime prevention shows you can intervene and interrupt escalating conflict. The very thing—pardon the pun—that triggers a crime of passion. The same principles behind better street lighting, cleaning up vacant lots, or fixing up abandoned houses can be applied in the heat of the moment situations to navigate and defuse conflict. This will save lives.
There is a lot that law enforcement can learn from communities and there is a lot more than can be accomplished when law enforcement works with communities to bring these violence intervention programs to scale. Cities like Chicago and Los Angeles are already seeing signs of success.
There is good news. There is money available to implement community violence intervention programs. The Biden administration has made this a priority for Justice Department funding. The University of Chicago is providing training support.
What’s needed are good police departments with strong community relationships. Ohio, this has your name written all over it.
Let’s talk about school shootings. As a parent, each time there is one of these tragic events, I worry about sending my own children to school the next morning. A thought no parent should have to struggle with. There is more that can be done with law enforcement working with the community. And again, it goes directly to what crime prevention is all about. America can build safe schools.
A hundred years ago, school fires were a national problem. But in the 25 years since the Columbine tragedy, not one student died in a school fire. And you’re sitting there trying to do the math in your head about how many students died from a mass shooting, and you can’t add that fast.
It was no accident that we have all but eliminated school fires. It was the concerted effort of communities across the country who pushed for new building standards, coordinated fire drills with local fire departments, and broad-scale public education.
The same can be done to help keep students safe from gun tragedy. It is time for the next generation of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design to focus on safe schools. Every school in America should be examined for immediate steps that can be implemented to secure entrances, the ways students move from classroom to classroom and other safety measures. Active shooter drills should be more like fire drills, where the school department works in cooperation with the local police department, so the drills become training grounds for safety and not an exercise in fear.
New building codes should be tied to the receipt of federal Department of Education funds. The codes need to take into account today’s risks. Higher grade glass and other 21st century building materials will help make schools a friendlier and safer place for our children to learn.
Police need to be in schools from pre-K all the way through graduation. Not just school resource officers, but as an integral part of school life, just like a school nurse and other support services. Providing ongoing public safety education on the range of risks our children face at school, at home, and at play.
And there is another benefit. Building support with PTA’s, school boards, teachers, school nurses, parents, and others will silence those voices who say Defund The Police.
Then there is the issue of people who bought guns for their personal protection but haven’t taken the time to learn how to use or store them properly. The chances of those firearms falling into the wrong hands are great. Police officers have tremendous credibility on this issue. Let’s help educate the gun owning public. Give specific tips, tell them the ins and outs of Ohio’s gun carry laws. Let’s give Cincinnati a shout out on innovative ways to thwart thieves from stealing unlocked guns from parked cars. And in case you haven’t heard, they even set up a Crime Gun Intelligence Center. Let’s not give gun thieves a chance. Thank you, Cincinnati.
And in Northern Ohio, the Westlake Police Department is taking some great steps to work with out-of-state landlords to reduce property theft in the units they lease.
Violence against women has no place in a civil society. While the Me Too movement raised the issue into public consciousness, the hard work of combating it remains to be done. Better law enforcement training, a clearer understanding of local and state laws around peace and protective orders, and some new laws need to be considered.
Sexual assault is under reported and under treated. Every hospital emergency room needs to have sexual assault kits at the ready. Treatment delayed is treatment denied, and important evidence that the police need to put the culprit behind bars is lost forever.
The public also needs to understand the root causes of violence against women and how to prevent it. Here is an idea. McGruff was modeled after the TV detective Columbo. Maybe we can team him up with our very own version of SVU’s Olivia Benson.
Step 2: Prevent 21st century drug abuse
Illegal drugs are a major threat to health and society. Drug trafficking is now simultaneously global and local. Illegal and ever more lethal pills can travel from any place in the world and arrive at any doorstep overnight with just a few clicks on your phone. The problem is so large, law enforcement alone can’t fix it. The health system can’t treat our way out of it, and harm reduction is no defense in the face of an unknown enemy in the form of fake pills.
Make no mistake, there is a 21st century drug trade that will require 22nd century solutions to combat. Yesterday’s thinking won’t cut it. At the center of today’s drug trade are large global criminal interests that don’t care about human life. The sale of these lethal pills is being aided and abetted through social media platforms targeting innocent children. The goal is to addict a generation to ensure profits for years to come. Swift action by federal, state, and local law enforcement is essential. The ability to manufacture, to distribute, and to sell today’s illegal drugs must be cut off at every turn.
When I took on this job three years ago this very week, I started speaking about the dangers of fake pills with fentanyl. Few had heard of it. Today, it’s difficult to find a family who hasn’t been affected by the crisis. Just look at these numbers.
The National Crime Prevention Council is honored to be working with families who have been impacted by this crisis. These parents have come forward to lead, so other parents won’t face the same tragedy of losing a child.
It can happen. One week after Virginia put in place a new bipartisan set of laws, police took about $6 million of fake pills off the streets. These drug dealers belong behind bars for a very long time. And maybe a few social media executives could be their cellmates.
This needs to be an all-paws-on deck movement.
To that end, our work with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to warn teens and tweens about the danger of fake products has taken on new meaning. Here is a sneak peek of a new McGruff ad that will begin airing across the country next month.
After talking to hundreds of parents who have lived this tragedy, it is important that we address our response in a compassionate way, that does not stigmatize young people who were duped into death during a moment of weakness.
To that end, livesproject.org was established as a digital remembrance quilt to give meaning to those lives. We honor their humanity.
As you read through those patches and as you listen to those parents, the stories are hauntingly familiar. A child is having a bad week. The kinds of thing every teenager struggles with. A boyfriend or girlfriend break up, anxiety about getting a good grade or getting into the right college, a fight with their parents. All things that are part of growing up. They talk to a friend. The friend tells them to take something. They rattle off any number of pills to treat anxiety, pain, depression, or ADHD. The child says they don’t have a prescription. Don’t worry, you can get it on social media. So, the teen picks up their cell phone and makes a drug deal. Except it doesn’t look like a drug deal. Colorful emojis, carefully engineered algorithms, and sophisticated geo tracking make it as easy as ordering fast food.
The fake pills arrive at the house. The teen waits until everyone has gone to bed. Goes into the safety of their own bedroom. The very place where once upon a time, and not so long-ago mom and dad read them fairy tales and tucked them into bed. They take that fake pill and this time it really is “Good Night Moon.”
This is not death from addiction. It is a poisoning inflicted on an innocent child by criminals aided and abetted by a social media industry that needs to be held accountable. It is deceptive criminal behavior at the most diabolical level.
If you think it can’t happen to you or one of your neighbors, as McGruff says, think again. Last year, NCPC wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the role of Snapchat and other social media companies in these deaths. A few weeks later the FBI was on the job, collecting cell phones and other electronic evidence. President Biden pledged in his state of the union address to hold social media companies accountable. We need to do more.
I want to share a story that led up to sending the Attorney General that letter. I was speaking to a group of about a dozen parents who all lost a child from fentanyl poisoning. A gentleman named John raised his hand. He was a retired police officer from a small town in northern California far removed from the big cities like San Francisco. He ran the crime prevention unit. He told me he wore the McGruff suit more times than he could remember. He sweated in that suit more times than he could remember. And before anyone here says it, those fans never work that well.
His son was on the school’s varsity football team. He got hurt in practice but wanted to play in the big game that weekend. He bought a fake pill on Snapchat, took it at night in his room, and John and the rest of his family had their whole lives turned upside down. Yet, there was John, out talking to school groups and other parents. Doing what he did his whole career. Crime prevention. John thanked me for everything we were doing and then said. “You need to do more. Everyone needs to do more.”
The only response to that is, “Yes Sir. We’ve got your back officer.”
It is also critical to help our communities in the aftermath of opioids. That chart I put up a few minutes ago showed the deaths. The number of survivors is much larger. Keep in mind that fentanyl is perhaps the most addictive substance created. If they didn’t die from fentanyl poisoning, they will likely develop an opioid addiction after just a couple of pills. Addicted to opioids before even realizing they took an opioid. No teenager—nor no adult—can beat that addiction without treatment. Treatment that is unavailable in most communities. They might be able to get treatment in prison. But without treatment in the community, you are just setting up a revolving door with the criminal justice system.
Let’s talk about that for a moment. If treatment is out of sight, it is out of mind for the people and families who need it most. So from east Baltimore, to some of the most rural parts of Ohio, to the tony neighborhoods of Silicon Valley, there need to be addiction treatment facilities. And here is an opportunity for law enforcement to support local communities. When someone proposes to build an addiction center in any community, one thing is certain. Every NIMBY in that area will come out of the woodwork to try and stop it. Be present. Join with the families in saying addiction treatment is needed and Yes, In My Back Yard.
Step three: Prevent auto fatalities.
States have pretty much maxed out on penalties for Driving Under the Influence and distracted driving. Yet, those fatalities continue to mount. To some extent, an unintended consequence of the legalization of marijuana and the popularity of smart phones. It is time to change public behavior. The most effective way is sustained public education with strong messaging and role models that make DUI and texting on the road as socially unacceptable as they are illegal. It needs to cut across law enforcement and include state and federal transportation and education departments. I’ve got McGruff and NASCAR ready to go. So, let’s hit the road.
And while we are at it, we can help teach people they can take steps to stop car jackers and car thieves.
Step 4: Make sure crime doesn’t pay.
Let’s look more closely at the economic engines behind crime. NCPC’s award-winning work on fake products will continue to educate teens and tweens. It needs to continue because there are 10,000 people who celebrate their 11th birthday every day and I thank USPTO for their commitment to the project. But that’s not enough. There needs to be a stronger connection with local law enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and the Justice Department that puts more of these criminals behind bars.
Along those same lines, everyone involved in law enforcement owes the public a better response to cybercrimes. Things like identity theft, senior scams, and financial fraud. While criminals will use electronic transfers and other means to drain savings accounts, we need to stay two steps ahead of them. Criminals have more tools available to steal. Remember what the infamous bank robber Willie Sutton said when they asked why he robbed banks. “Because that’s where the money is.”
Now banks build websites and apps, not more branches. Times have changed but crooks will be crooks. Let’s face it, crooks like Willie Sutton and Al Capone would have loved the internet. Our job is to keep people safe from their deviousness.
As we sit here, an older person is having a good chunk of their retirement savings stollen out from under them. They will call the local police department and hopefully get a sympathetic response and not much more. It’s not anyone’s fault. These are new problems, so there needs to be new solutions. NCPC stands ready to help local, state, federal, and even international leaders figure out new solutions to provide a local response to this global problem.
NCPC will use its experience and our ability to bring people together to host a Summitt to Stamp Out Fakes. The summit will bring together federal agencies, state and local law enforcement with the tech industry, business leaders, academics, and other experts to think again on how we can cut off these modern-day counterfeiters and crooks. There’s a reason McGruff is just a couple blocks away from the White House.
Step 5: No Place for Hate.
The good news about crime going down back when I started, is sadly not the case with hate crimes. And as we look at the world and global tensions, it is no surprise that hate crimes are on the rise. Crime prevention is key to reducing this area too. Many Americans are unaware that hate is a crime. Antisemitism, especially on college campuses, is on the rise. Members of the LGBTQ+ community are also targets of hate that too often turns violent.
By letting people know the U.S. is no place for hate, new partnerships and new friends will be sitting around the crime prevention table. Religious groups, ethnic groups, the LGBTQ+ community, and others who have been the targets of crime just because of where they worship, who their parents were, or who they love. Some might even be considered unlikely allies with law enforcement. When it comes to crime prevention, the more the better. Everyone here knows crooks hate to be outnumbered.
I stand before you as the son and grandson of Italian immigrants, so I’m aware of ethnic stereotypes as they relate to crime. One thing is certain. Ethnic and racial stereotypes don’t help solve crimes. They get in the way.
You should have a little Blue Square at your seats. They are to draw attention to the rise in Jewish hate. They also show how combating hate can bring different partners to the table. You see, they come to us directly from Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. The team owner, Robert Kraft, started the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. I told them there would be a lot of Browns and Bengals fans here. “Great,” was the response. “That’s exactly the point. We don’t hate them we just want to beat them at a game.”
Step 6: Use technology to stop a crime.
This is simply a huge area where law enforcement and the crime prevention community can do a better job. You already heard me talk about some of the dangers of social media and other criminal uses of technology. I’ll keep this simple. Everyone has heard, “Let’s take back our streets.” It’s time to take back our tech. Home and personal safety, combating shoplifting, reducing credit card fraud, are all areas where technology can take a bigger bite out of crime. Let’s reimagine neighborhood and crime watch for the digital age. Look at it this way. If villains and crooks are using Artificial Intelligence to peddle things like child porn, and law enforcement doesn’t stay a step ahead, the bad guys will win. I know Ohio won’t let that happen.
There’s the plan. I’m sure there is more you can and should add to it, but let’s get started and bring everyone along. Because everyone can Take A Bite Out Of Crime®.
You have been in the crime prevention game since 1977. McGruff wasn’t even a twinkle in the eyes of those two bloodhounds back then. You worked through some tough times and never gave up. You keep bringing people together. Your work is inspiring Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky and other states to get on the crime prevention bandwagon.
Crime Prevention Coalition of America
Now it’s finally time for that announcement I mentioned. There could be no more appropriate place to make this announcement than right here at this heartbeat of crime prevention. It is with great excitement that the National Crime Prevention Council announces today the start of a new Crime Prevention Coalition of America. It will be a coalition driven by local grassroots ideas and power. It will be fueled by new resources like curriculum guides, advocacy for ways to stop 21st century crime, and building a bridge between the community and law enforcement.
McGruff will be front and center of this effort. A visible watchdog who keeps people safe. Each community without an active crime prevention outreach program will be given the opportunity to adopt a crime dog locally. This way, community support is built in from the start.
We have made it as easy as possible to get involved. Just go to our website and sign up. Take out your phone right now and scan the QR code. No money. It’s free. Need materials to download, they are right there. Don’t have a McGruff suit? You can order one. Can’t afford it? Let us know and we’ll get someone to adopt the Crime Dog in your community. What we want is your energy. Your talent. Your dedication. Your gut determination to never give up.
And if anyone thinks you can prevent crime without Ohio, McGruff only has one thing to say: Think again!
Thank you for inviting me. Thank you for all you have done. I know you will wake up tomorrow very hungry and Take A Bite Out of Crime®, again.
Thank you!
