January 29, 2008
Valdosta - Etoyi Preaster, Freddie Finnissee and Montez Scott. They are Valdosta's Most Wanted criminals.
And now the police are looking to use one of the Internet's most popular tools to catch them. "If it helps us catch more criminals, we are certainly going to do it," says Commander Brian Childress.
Valdosta police may soon use social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook to post pictures of these and other criminals.
They say wanted criminals may not stay in our area. Using these Internet sights would make their pictures available anywhere they run.
"Quite obviously, a lot of people, almost everybody goes to MySpace now. It's a big sight. So we think if we can put it on there, put those photos on there, we are expanding our audience and increase the possibility of finding these individuals," Childress says.
The idea is still in the research stages, but police say other agencies doing the same have seen great success and even made arrests.
And if it proves to do the same in the city, posting sex offenders, amber alerts, missing persons and surveillance video could be the next step.
"What we'd be doing there is posting information for the viewers and hoping they would call us and give us tips. And we think that will happen."
They hope using the Internet marks a new frontier in law enforcement, one that Valdosta Police hopes will help them put more crooks behind bars.
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