Politics & Government

Five Years of Finding Long Island's Fugitives

Fugitive Finder magazine helps nab 436 of Long Island's most wanted.

For the past five years, the Long Island Fugitive Finder, a free monthly magazine containing information on individuals sought in connection with crimes, has been filling in as Long Island's modern equivalent of wanted posters in the Old West, 150 or so years after the era of sheriffs and outlaws long retired to Boot Hill.

To date, the publication has helped to apprehend 436 individuals, an average of two per week, an accomplishment honored last Wednesday afternoon by Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano (R-Bethpage) at the  building in Mineola.

Launched by D&S Advertising, Inc. of Medford in 2007, the paper first featured 'most wanted' listings and crime alerts from Suffolk County Crime Stoppers before expanding to include Nassau listings in March 2007.

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Newspaper owner Dean Murray is also the publisher of the Long Island Job Finder, from which the idea for "Fugitive Finder" emerged.

Recalling when his team started putting the publication together in December 2006, Murray said that "ironically... while we're putting this thing together to launch it in January of 2007, my secretary gets robbed of her credit cards in my office. I gave chase, caught the criminal... I got the credit card back, turned him loose. Ironically, two months later, guess who ended up in here?"

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The monthly publication is available at locations throughout Nassau, Suffolk and Queens. Each county is offered space to list 12 "most wanted" criminals as well as four crime alerts per month. More than 25,000 copies of the paper are distributed each month.

"It's a publication that works, it has a great public benefit," Mangano said. "Many people start publications hoping to create a readership and of course, making some money, but here in this case Dean Murray began his publication...with the hope of helping the incredible law enforcement agencies of both Nassau and Suffolk County in finding criminals."

While some ads do appear within the publication, D&S loses money on the venture, a situation with which Murray is content.

"We started this publication not necessarily as a money-making venture but as a way that we can help law enforcement throughout Long Island to capture these criminals and bring them to justice," he said. "This magazine and this website brings millions of additional eyeballs to law enforcement; it allows the public to get involved without physically getting involved in a dangerous way."

Residents can call 1-800-244-TIPS in Nassau or e-mail tips to aid police, and cash rewards up to $5,000 are offered for information leading to arrests. The magazine is also available online.

"Fugitive Finder is just another valuable tool the we utilize in our law enforcement strategy," Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey said, holding up a photo of an alleged heroin dealer that was published in the paper.

"We've even had individuals who have actually turned themselves in being in this publication," Suffolk County Crime Stoppers President Nick Amarr said. "This is one publication where you definitely don't want to be in for very long."


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