FBI to Put Criminals Up in Lights

coondoggie writes "The FBI today said it wants to install 150 digital billboards in 20 major U.S. cities in the next few weeks to show fugitive mug shots, missing people and high-priority security messages from the big bureau. The billboards will let the FBI highlight those people it is looking for the most: violent criminals, kidnap victims, missing kids, bank robbers, even terrorists, the FBI said in a release. And the billboards will be able to be updated largely in real-time — right after a crime is committed, a child is taken, or an attack is launched. Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Miami will be among those cities provided with the new billboards."

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[Mishra100]

Maybe they should spend some money on advertisement space on the internet. That way the notices could be on just about every web page that is ad supported. They could get more efficient advertisement due to the web being more detailed that billboards.

I think I could spot my brother in a website ad if he were posted on it.

Another good thing about this is that the wanted photos would be displayed when any store employee is surfing the internet. They would see the photo and maybe spot someone in the store at that time. Those people aren't going to remember the picture of the billboard they drove by on the way to work.

How do I know?

[tsotha]

This kinds of schemes always remind me of the old Ahnold movie The Running Man. I understand there are lots of bad people out there... but, thing is, it takes a certain amount of trust for me to believe the guy on the billboard really is a murderer/child molester. Somebody I don't know is trying to enlist me in the search for someone else I don't know. It makes me a little uncomfortable.

Device Specs

[coldcell]

They're using these [cisco.com], and yes, they DO run Linux.

Re:Slander

[dotancohen]

Key word: accused. In 2004, I had a rifle pointed at me and complained to the police. Result: The offender claimed that _I_ threatened _him_ with my weapon. I was accused for a crime I did not commit. After a year-long trial, I was aquitted. In January 2007, I was attacked in my own car. I beat the living shit out of the attacker and he thus claimed that _I_ attacked him. I had no physical damage worth reporting, so now _I_ face charges. There is a big difference between being accused of a crime, and actually committing one.

Re:Slander

[TubeSteak]

no, these are people who are wanted for a crime so they can face trial who refuse to turn themselves in and be tried in front of a jury. same thing as the wanted posters in the post office

Just wait for the first amber alert put out with the description of a generic black/hispanic male because (as an example) some white woman killed her kid(s) but enjoys the attention from claiming they were kidnapped instead.

The fallout from that should be a riot.

Re:What If ...?

[DavidShor]

"COPS made the young black man the national face of crime; it needs no "white supremacist plot" to reinforce in the minds of people that different is bad and scary."

I don't dispute that COPS was heavily distorted, but is there any evidence that the show really had any effect on racial perception? As a result of structural historical and economic reasons, black people make up the overwhelming majority of criminals in certain urban areas.

I would imagine the perception was already there because of this.

Re:What If ...?

[Henry V .009]

It might help if young black men stopped committing crime at 10x the national average. I'm just saying. (Don't worry, most of it is black on black, which is also why blacks are so much more likely to get murdered themselves. Unless that's "oversampling" too?)

I am somewhat curious as to what part of the country you live in to believe that minorities are "oversampled as criminal suspects on the nightly TV news." I take it that you've never come across the results of the FBI victim surveys?

Good god, but some people really let the rose tint fog up their glasses.

Re:Cool!

[sm62704]

As I have, er, ahem, met some interesting people [slashdot.org] here in Springfield (although I haven't met Alderman Simpson) [illinoistimes.com], there's something I know about these "wanted" lists most people dont.

Many of these criminals are low level petty thugs, thieves, and especially dopers. I've mentioned my friend Tami in my slashdot journals, here's a true (AFAIK, I have no reason to doubt her) and I think hilarious story she told me.

Tami's been in jail before, but she's not what anyone would think of as a "hardened criminal" and in fact comes from a well to do family with political connections that has (sucks to be me) pretty much given up on her.

One time she'd had some sort of run-in with the law; "failure to appear" for a speeding ticket or pot or some such nonsense and didn't even know she was wanted. She got tickets to some shindig some friend of her father's was throwing and showed up. The affair had to do with these "top twenty wanted in Sangamon County" lists.

She showed up for the free food and alcohol (Tami's no beanpole and likes to drink) and of course most of the people there were from law enforcement. There was one of the top-20 wanted posters prominently displayed, and she was on it!

"Boy, I got the hell out of there real quick!" she told me.

Living in the future is so cool!

Then this [slashdot.org] might interest you.

-mcgrew

Re:Slander

[Grygus]

You don't get slapped on a Wanted poster right after a crime is committed. The potential for mistake on these billboards would be much higher, and the exposure and therefore damage if a mistake is made would be much greater. When's the last time you saw a billboard? When's the last time you saw a Top Wanted list? Using this for people who have already been convicted would be great, e.g., prison escapees. Using this to rope up suspects is a perversion of justice. You get on this billboard, you have already been declared guilty in the public mind. You just said as much yourself.