Variety & Rolling Stone Truth Seekers Summit presented by Paramount+, explores the art of documentary and investigative storytelling. Exclusive keynote conversations and panel discussions with leading documentary filmmakers, journalists, and cultural trendsetters making an impact and effecting change.
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00:00We aren't able to capture these wanted fugitives without our loyal audience providing us the information that leads to these captures.
00:07It's changed over time. We still have the hotline. We still have operators taking in these tips.
00:13We don't have law enforcement answering the phone. We have that bond of trust with the public that you can remain anonymous.
00:18We don't care who you are, what your status is. Just give us the information that leads to the arrest.
00:24While we still operate the old school hotline with the phone number that anybody can call into, we take tips on social media.
00:31We allow people to text us information. Not everybody wants to pick up the phone.
00:35Not everybody wants to really get on and speak with another person.
00:38And so, hey, no matter how you want to give us that information, we'll find a way you can get it to us.
00:43And it's led to even more incredible captures.
00:45This last season of America's Most Wanted, we had six episodes in January and February.
00:50We caught seven fugitives and recovered two missing children.
00:53People predicted no one would watch us. I was too old. Nobody knew who Callahan was and stuff.
01:00But the public and the director of the FBI said, you wait and see, John.
01:03People still believe in you, and they believe in justice.
01:07And you're not a vigilante, and you give people the way to do it.
01:10And when the Internet was invented, it changed our whole world.
01:13I mean, I'm going to brag a little bit here.
01:15We caught 1,200 guys on the 20-some years, the six years that I was on.
01:21We caught 17 off the FBI's 10 Most Wanted, more than any FBI agent or any FBI fieldhouse.
01:28We recovered 61 stranger-abducted children, Elizabeth Smart probably being the most famous, when everybody wanted to quit that case.
01:37So the Internet changed our world.
01:39And what I was trying to say was that now we caught people in 45 countries.
01:43I did cases with Interpol, cases with Scotland Yard.
01:47The world became a much smaller place for these dirtbags.
01:50And a lot of them are smart, and they run to other countries, and they do all kinds of terrible things, and they keep moving.
01:55So all of a sudden, America's Most Wanted became the world's Most Wanted.
01:59And it was awesome.
02:01We dragged 30 guys out of Mexico that came in the United States and killed people and ran them back into Mexico.
02:07Nobody could do that.
02:08And I'm not bragging.
02:09It was you, the public.