McGruff was created in 1979 and debuted in 1980 with a series of public service announcements educating citizens on personal security measures, such as locking doors and putting lights on timers, in order to reduce crime.

McGruff proved to be a successful campaign with over $100 million in free air time donated in the first year reaching over 50% of adults.

From 1982 to 2012, a number of municipalities participated in the McGruff house program which offered temporary haven to children fearing immediate harm.

In the 1960s, a number of riots broke out across the U.S. and numerous public figures were assassinated, including President Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X.

[3] Accepting the Republican nomination for president, Barry Goldwater positioned crime as one of the biggest issues facing the nation.

The FBI director recommended a campaign playing on fears to convince citizens to take personal safety steps, but the Ad Council rejected their proposal believing it would largely be ignored by an already frightened public.

[11] The Ad Council gave the creative responsibilities to Dancer Fitzgerald Sample who they had previously worked with on the Keep America Beautiful campaign.

On February 8, 1979, the Ad Council's board of directors held a meeting where they and public officials met to listen to data Dancer Fitzgerald Sample had compiled.

Dancer Fitzgerald Sample had conducted focus groups in a number of cities to determine public perceptions on crime.

The focus groups found that the public believed police should be the ones to prevent crime, but that they were unwilling to pay more in taxes to support more officers.

They recommended a campaign which would "emphasize that individual actions can reduce crime" and "offer easily accessible opportunities for people to participate.

[14] The proposal Keil selected, which would go on to become McGruff, was a talking dog in a trench coat produced by Sherry Nemmers and Ray Krivascy who "was tired...he had seen the world, and he had epitomized all the detectives we had seen from Raymond Chandler to Dashiell Hammett and even Columbo.

"[14] While lauded by Keil, the U.S. Department of Justice was less enthused by the idea of a talking dog as the spokesman for crime prevention.

Despite this, Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti criticised the effort saying: "Why has the LEAA gotten into a campaign that is spending good money on a talking dog?

[16] In November 1979, the dog was introduced at a press conference in New York City with his slogan "Take a bite out of crime."

[21] Of the forty personal security measures that McGruff advertisements recommended, only seven were explicitly mentioned in TV advertisements: locking doors, leaving outdoor lights on, putting indoor lights on timers, asking neighbors to watch your house, watching the neighborhood, reporting suspicious activity, and forming community groups to prevent crime.

[21] O'Keefe hypothesizes that this is due to a plateau effect, as 75% of respondents in 1979 already reported locking their doors; the only personal security measure not mentioned in a television advertisement to see a significant increase was getting a dog.

The full 60-second advertisement features McGruff (voiced by Jack Keil) entering an unlocked house and telling the viewer, "All crime needs is a chance.

[25] In order to show the effectiveness of community watch, McGruff creator Sherry Nemmers selected actual Hartford resident Mimi Marth for the advertisement which now bears her name.

Approximately 1,500 state and local law enforcement agencies use officers wearing a McGruff costume to educate children and others about crime prevention.

[28] NCPC and McGruff are currently working with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office[29] to combat the sale of fake products online.

Among the largest campaigns in the Crime Dog's lengthy career, it includes a partnership with NASCAR and featured a new car with driver Joey Gase.

[34] In October of the same year, the organization launched livesproject.org, a digital remembrance quilt to honor victims and to raise awareness of the problem.

The program was ended because, with the advent and growing prominence of cell phones, the need for McGruff Houses declined combined with tightening budgets.

They respond by not taking him seriously and treating him like an actual dog with 'baby talk', leading to McGruff's throwing his paperwork in the air and storming out of the scene.