[Infowarrior] - FBI to put criminals, security issues up in digital billboard lights

[Richard Forno]

FBI to put criminals, security issues up in digital billboard lights
Submitted by Layer 8 on Wed, 12/26/2007 - 10:02pm.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/23351


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 initiative is made possible through a partnership with Clear Channel
Outdoor, the advertising company that¹s providing the space as a public
service.

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.

The FBI said it tested its first billboard in the Philadelphia area in
September, with crystal-clear images of 11 of its most violent fugitives on
eight billboards and a 24-hour hotline for the public to call. The
billboards paid quick public safety dividends. In October, two fugitives
were captured as a direct result of the publicity, the FBI said.

Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Miami will be among those cities
provided with the new billboards, along with Milwaukee and Philadelphia.The
FBI said Atlanta, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Memphis and Minneapolis will also
get the billboards, as will Akron, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Albuquerque, N.M.;
El Paso, Texas; Des Moines, Iowa; Newark, N.J.; Wichita, Kan.; and the
Florida cities of Tampa and Orlando.

Using digital billboards to put pressure on criminals is not an entirely new
concept. According to a CNN report, in September, Florida authorities
arrested a drug suspect two weeks after his photo was displayed on a
billboard in Daytona Beach. A tipster who saw the suspect's picture found
him sitting in a McDonald's. The billboards have also been useful in
disasters. When an interstate bridge collapsed in August in Minneapolis,
billboards displayed an emergency message within 15 minutes, the report
stated.

The downside is that only a small fraction of U.S. billboards are digital ­
500 or so out of estimated 450,000 total signs, according to published
reports.