Budget cuts take national bite out of McGruff

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WORTHINGTON — Since his inception by the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) in 1978, McGruff the Crime Dog has been encouraging people to help “take a bite out of crime.” But citizens will be seeing less of McGruff in the near future.

For 30 years, signs bearing the reassuring picture of McGruff the Crime Dog have been letting children know where they can find a safe haven in the event of a dangerous situation. The McGruff House program has been active in Worthington for 20 of those years.

According to a recent letter from the NCPC, both the house program and the truck program are being disbanded nationally.

“Funding for programs such as McGruff House and McGruff Truck has been increasingly difficult to secure,” the letter signed by NCPC CEO Ann Harkins states.

“Because of 21st century advances in technology and declines in funding, we will be terminating the program,” she adds.

There are 120 houses in Worthington that bear the McGruff House sign. Forty-four trucks belonging to Worthington Public Utilities (WPU) and the city of Worthington are part of the McGruff Truck program, which serves the same purpose as the house program. Both programs offer help in an emergency situation to anyone, especially young people. Participants are to telephone appropriate authorities if they are asked for help, to reassure and assist children who are frightened or lost, assist those who have been victimized by crime by calling authorities and reporting crime and suspicious activities.

Those who reside in McGruff Houses should expect a letter in the mail in the next few days from Worthington Police Detective Dave Hoffman regarding the McGruff signs, which will be gathered up by law enforcement and destroyed.

“It is a shame. We spent a lot of money on them,” Hoffman said. “About $10 per sign.”

The decision to end the McGruff House and Truck programs came as a surprise to Hoffman.

“This really came out of the blue,” he said. “It was completely unexpected.”

NCPC Director of Communications and Marketing Michelle Boykins said the program lost its funding 4½ years ago, and NCPC had been trying to find a way to pay for it ever since. Attempts to raise money for it were unsuccessful.

WPU General Manager Scott Hain said he didn’t really have any indication that NCPC was planning to axe the truck program, but had noticed the correspondence from them was not as punctual as it had been in the past.

“It just wasn’t as frequent or regular,” he said.

The McGruff decal will have to be peeled off all 44 of the trucks and the number on each one retired, Hain explained. The McGruff Truck program has been in Worthington since 1998.

The number of houses involved in the program in Worthington has fluctuated over the years, Hoffman said, but many of the participants have been with it since it first came to the area. Each year, the homeowners receive a letter and a request for a donation. One McGruff homeowner said he had been wondering why his household had not received the usual request. His home has had a McGruff House sign in the window for many years, he said.

The money to purchase the house signs came from various service organizations in the area. To become part of the McGruff Truck program, WPU had to pay a $450 participation fee, which is actually used to do background checks, according to Boykins.

The administrators of the program had to determine if the house and truck programs were still “viable models in an age of cell phones and other electronic devices that allow parents and caregivers to stay in touch with their children,” the letter states. Ultimately, the NCPC decided McGruff House and Truck safe havens were no longer “with the times.”

“We tried to keep it going,” Boykins said. “Unfortunately, this is the reality of the times we are in.”

The program was originally funded through a federal grant. The back of each McGruff poster states, “The National McGruff Campaign is substantially funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.”

Some communities, Boykins said, felt like they had outgrown the program and didn’t have much to say about its loss. For those who were unhappy with the situation, another NCPC program, “Celebrate Safe Communities,” offers the same educational approach, tools and resources, she stated.

“There is a wealth of material available from NCPC,” Boykins said. “And McGruff isn’t going anywhere. This is one program ending, but others are moving forward.”

Other McGruff programs, such as education about bullying, home and online safety, strangers and drugs, will continue to move forward, and McGruff will continue to help people “take a bite out of crime.” According to Boykins, the overcoat-wearing crime hound will be 32 years old in July and is still going strong, with no plans for retirement.

Hoffman said there has already been local discussion on how to replace the McGruff House program in the area by getting the Neighborhood Watch involved, possibly.

“I don’t think there’s anything that can replace McGruff, though,” he said. “How do you come up with an icon like this that everybody recognizes?”

Daily Globe Reporter Justine Wettschreck can be reached at

376-7322.

Tags: worthington police department, news, worthington, crime