This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Sydney Zuiker, safe community program director, speaks during a human trafficking presentation at Crime Stoppers, 3001 Main St., Thursday, March 17, 2022, in Houston.

People attend a human trafficking presentation by Sydney Zuiker, safe community program director, at Crime Stoppers, 3001 Main St., Thursday, March 17, 2022, in Houston.

Rania Mankarious of Crime Stoppers of Houston talks to the media during a press conference at Houston City Hall to announce the “One Safe Houston” initiative to help reduce violent crime on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022 in Houston.

Andy Kahan points to a victim board during a press conference at the Crime Stoppers headquarters on Tuesday, April 12, 2022.

John Whitmire speaks during a press conference at the Crime Stoppers headquarters on Tuesday, April 12, 2022.

Pamela Wells, left, executive director at Region 4 ESC and Rania Mankarious, right, CEO of Crime Stoppers Houston have a conversation before getting recorded together giving a statement, Monday, March 21, 2022, in Houston.

If it seems like Crime Stoppers of Houston is everywhere these days, it’s because it is.

In recent weeks its CEO warned Houstonians at a local Republicans lunch club about out-of-control crime. Its victims’ assistance director blasted a local judge on television. Its staff trained METRO police officers.

Long known as one of the largest Crime Stoppers chapter in the United States, the organization boasts a spacious headquarters in Midtown, a high-profile CEO who earns nearly as much as Houston’s police chief and a multi-million dollar budget.

Crime victims and law enforcement leaders praise the organization, calling it an invaluable resource that has helped detectives solve perplexing cases.

“They have a role to hold a trusted line for tips, and I think they do that effectively,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.

Detractors argue the organization has strayed from its core mission and criticize CEO Rania Mankarious for using the nonprofit as a personal launchpad. And as homicides have risen across the city, judges and criminal justice reform advocates say Crime Stoppers has taken a partisan turn and is engaging in misleading conversations about crime across the city.

Gov. Greg Abbott's administration supported Crime Stoppers of Houston's expansion into schools across the state and reportedly backed the organization with a $4 million grant. The organization also enjoys close relations with Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who donated $500,000 to the non-profit— which has a room in its headquarters named for the DA’s Office.

To report this story, the Chronicle reviewed current and former law enforcement leaders; crime victims, elected officials, and community leaders. Barned-Smith reviewed hundreds of postings from the organization's social media accounts. The story is also based on an investigation of the organization's tax filings, news segments, and other documents. Houston Chronicle librarian Joyce Lee provided research for this story.

Andy Kahan, its director of Victim Services and Advocacy, partnered with Fox 26 on a series called “Breaking Bond.” The segments follow a familiar script: Kahan describes elements of crimes in which defendants on bond commit additional violence, while Houston police union officials or members of the district attorney’s office criticize the judges.

Where’s the money?: Texas Crime Stoppers organizations are using cash once spent on anonymous tip rewards for lavish salaries, travel costs

“These issues weren’t as prevalent before 2018,” Kahan said, when asked about the series. “That’s why I started documenting these cases and felt that it was imperative to bring them to the public.”

But judges who spoke to the Chronicle said they are following the Texas Constitution, which does not allow most people charged with crimes (including those previously convicted of crimes) to be held without bail — which is meant to ensure defendants show up for court appearances, not be used as punishment. And many judges highlighted on “Breaking Bond” are those who stopped giving the organization money, funneling probation funds to smaller organizations or others aimed at helping battered women.

The organization has backed Abbott, politically, with press releases in support of his legislative agenda. Mankarious’ husband has donated more than $20,000 to the governor.

Interviews with current and former Crime Stoppers employees and board members, law enforcement, judicial and municipal officials as well as advocates for criminal justice reform paint a picture of mission creep and accusations of partisanship.

“They’ve been a lot more active politically,” political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus said. “Crime is one of the most potent political issues. Being able to navigate and direct that as an issue, is power.”

Mankarious said her organization works with community groups and political leaders of both parties, and said that as crime has risen in Houston, she has focused on preventing crime across the city and highlighting the toll caused by dangerous criminals.

The first Crime Stoppers organization was founded in 1976 in Albuquerque, N.M., by Greg MacAleese, a former reporter who’d then become a police officer.

The idea was simple: a nonprofit would raise donations while running a hotline that anonymous tipsters could call with information about unsolved crimes. The organization would pass the tips along to the police and pay tipsters if their information helped solve a case.

The concept quickly spread, and arrived in Houston five years later.

By the end of the year, Houston officials had credited Crime Stoppers tips with helping apprehend 388 suspects, dozens of stolen cars, more than $2 million in contraband and $700,000 worth of drugs.

Ever since, the organization has routinely been acknowledged as one of the most productive across the United States.

DA under fire: After a string of high-profile losses, Harris County DA Kim Ogg is left to battle critics on all sides

The organization had broad support from the community — this newspaper, for years, partnered with the organization and featured a “Crime of the Week” in its pages. University of Houston theater students re-enacted various crimes, which were then aired on ABC13 every Monday and Tuesday. Numerous radio stations also promoted a regular weekly crime segment.

Over the years, it steadily expanded its portfolio. In 1997, the organization began promoting school safety, with a “Safe School Institute.”

In a 2001 Chronicle story, then-executive director Kim Ogg said no other school safety program offers “real steps” to prevent crime.

“So many safety programs offer character building or education programs,” she said. “But when we say ‘prevention,’ we mean literally.”

Now, the organization says it has made safety presentations to more than 1.2 million students on topics from active shooters to animal safety, bullying, human trafficking, mental health and prom safety.

The organization has served as a launchpad for its leaders. Ogg, who is now the Harris County district attorney, led Crime Stoppers from 1999 to 2006. Katherine Cabaniss, who replaced Ogg, spent six years at the organization before Abbott appointed her to be the criminal judge overseeing Harris County’s 248th District Court. Both women declined to be interviewed for this story.

Under the leadership of Mankarious, the organization shifted even more aggressively toward crime prevention, rather than focusing exclusively on helping police solve crimes. While the organization says it has helped solve 35,767 cases since 1980, the organization’s annual reports show a sizeable drop in cases in recent years. In 2020 Crime Stoppers issued payments to 248 tipsters totaling $310,800. That same year, the organization paid Mankarious — who supervises just over a dozen employees — about $280,000.

That’s about $8,000 less than that of Houston Police Chief Troy Finner’s (who supervises more than 5,000 officers) salary.

Mankarious, a mother of three who grew up in Framingham (near Boston), began working at Crime Stoppers in 2006 and became CEO seven years later.

The organization has expanded school and neighborhoods programs to include topics such as dating violence, human trafficking, cyber terrorism, animal cruelty, and self defense classes.

Her strategy, she said, was to “soften” the organization’s image, to make it more relatable to Houstonians of all types.”

That meant creating a fashion-focused podcast, “Styling Social Justice,” co-hosted with Houston socialite Donae Cangelosi Chramosta, and later, another one, called “The Balanced Voice with Rania Mankarious,” which hosted celebrities and government officials ranging from Matthew McConaughey to Gov. Abbott.

Speeding in Texas?: New analysis reveals where police pulled over the most people

She penned a column in The Buzz Magazines, a local media company that notes on its website that it serves “residents from Houston’s most affluent communities” of Bellaire, Memorial, River Oaks, Tanglewood and West University.

Mankarious wrote about topics ranging from preventing animal cruelty; highlighting the dangers of vaping, and tips for joggers, a review of her columns show. Crime Stoppers held fundraisers at local boutique designers featuring “brunch and bubbles” and created a young professionals group.

She portrayed herself as a “super mom,” frequently talking on social media about her three children. She hired publicists, paid with the nonprofit’s funds, to nominate her for numerous awards across the region, according to interviews with former employees and other people formerly associated with the organization. Mankarious said the tactic was part of a strategy to make her — and Crime Stoppers of Houston — more visible across the region.

“Nobody knew me,” Mankarious said. “I was a Boston girl, and I needed to be connected as a nonprofit leader and the Houston language for that is being nominated for awards.”

And she wrote “The Online World: What You Think You Know and What You Don’t.” Until last month, visitors to Crime Stoppers’ website were greeted by an immediate call for donations — and then a pitch to buy the book.

Mankarious said she wrote the book after the nonprofit’s advisers told her leaders like her typically have written books, and said Crime Stoppers receives a portion of proceeds from any book sales.

After the Chronicle inquired about the appearance of self dealing, the organization removed that slide, changing it to one that said #STANDINGFORPUBLICSAFETY,” with a request for visitors to the website to take a survey.

If there is one decision that reflects how Crime Stoppers has evolved, it may be Mankarious’ move in 2018 to hire Andy Kahan.

Kahan has spent the last 30 years representing crime victims — first as an employee reporting to the mayor of Houston, then at the Houston Police Department and lastly at Crime Stoppers.

A fixture on local news, Kahan has spent his career advocating for crime victims, battling against the sale of “murderabilia,” and fighting to keep sex offenders and other criminals locked up.

Kahan, who received frequent praise for his advocacy for crime victims, made headlines in 2013 after reporters discovered HPD was investigating him for allegedly obtaining a prisoner’s confidential disciplinary record and using it to try to stop the man from getting paroled. His personnel file shows Kahan was ultimately suspended for several days after he admitted that he lied to a journalist about where he originally obtained the information. 

After Kahan was hired, Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, said he saw a significant shift.

“Most nonprofits of this type take great pains to steer clear of openly engaging in politics,” said Wu, a local defense attorney. “Crime Stoppers used to be like that. What has been slowly creeping in … They’ve now taken very public stances on controversies, policy issues, and basically started campaigning against people.”

UNSOLVED: DNA testing puts cold cases in the spotlight. But in Houston, hundreds of the dead remain unidentified.

Attacks have come as a new wave of judges have dramatically reduced money given to CrimeStoppers.

Texas law provides three ways Crime Stoppers organizations can receive funds through the courts: A small portion of court costs all offenders must pay automatically flows to the Governor’s Crime Stoppers Assistance Fund. Local Crime Stoppers chapters can apply for grants. Crime Stoppers of Houston said has never received funding through this process. Local judges can order individual offenders to refund Crime Stoppers for any reward the organization paid for a tip used to solve his or her felony crime. Mankarious said the chapter had never received a reward reimbursement.

Most commonly, judges require offenders to pay a fee — typically $50 — to the local Crime Stoppers chapter as a condition of probation. That funding has dropped dramatically in past years, from a high of about $630,000 in 2017 to a pandemic-suppressed low of $85,000 in 2020.

Data show that drop appears to have come after a blue wave in 2018 brought in new Democratic judges, many of whom decided to do away with the court-ordered $50 to Crime Stoppers. Judges who spoke to the Chronicle said they directed court costs to other, smaller organizations, or to organizations dedicated to assisting victims of family violence.

When court payments to Crime Stoppers dropped to just over $85,000 in 2020, Crime Stoppers announced it was running low on reward money.

Soon after, Kahan spoke at Harris County Commissioners Court, seeking to have the county work with the organization to study the impact of bond reform on crime victims.

Astroworld: Harris County officials dismiss Abbott Astroworld task force findings as blame game continues

Judge Lina Hidalgo declined Kahan’s request, saying that the county should not partner with organizations that might have “an ax to grind” on the issue.

Then, Kahan began appearing on “Breaking Bond.”

As homicides rose across the region in 2020 and 2021 — Harris County and Houston recorded a total of nearly 600 homicides last year — Kahan and Crime Stoppers began to focus on cases in which people already on bond went on to allegedly commit additional violence. Kahan has so far identified about 170 defendants he says meet that criteria, or about eight percent of the homicides that occurred in Harris County during that time.

Crime Stoppers denies any connection between the drop in funding and their more recent efforts.

“The courts are acting like a revolving door,” Mankarious said. “And the most violent defendants are coming in and we’re looking at repeat individuals and they’re going right back (out). … And so, we’re looking at that, and I don’t think it’s wrong, to look at outcomes.”

Houston Police Officers’ Union President Doug Griffith said Crime Stoppers of Houston “has shined a light on the judges here in Harris County and their lack of any kind of motivation to do their actual job. Andy Kahan and Crime Stoppers have been on the forefront of helping victims of violent crime.”

Criminologists, however, say that data on pretrial bail policies have not shown any significant impact on crime rates, noting cities elsewhere across the US have weathered similar increases, even in states that have not enacted bond reform policies.

“We’re really looking at a national phenomenon and so should be thinking about national problems and national solutions,” said Ames Grawert, a criminologist at the Brennan Center for Justice. “That makes it very complicated to blame any specific criminal justice reform or local issues.”

Or as Harris County Chief Public Defender Alex Bunin put it: “It’s really numbers vs. anecdotes. Of course every death is terrible. But you have to weigh it against what’s really happening. It’s not being looked at realistically.”

This story has been updated to more clearly describe Crime Stoppers of Houston’s relationship with Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration and District Attorney Kim Ogg.

St. John "Sinjin" Barned-Smith is an investigative reporter for the Houston Chronicle.

Sinjin started his career in Philadelphia, spent two years in Paraguay in the Peace Corps and worked at a small paper in Maryland before joining the Chronicle in 2014. Follow him on Twitter or email tips to st.john.smith@chron.com.

“It’s serious,” Payne said Saturday afternoon. "People are dying. People have died. We just want ... the environmental injustice to stop in our community."