Digital Wanted Posters Catch Fugitives

The digital wanted poster, on billboards, is helping to arrest criminals.

According to a CNN story, the wanted poster has returned. Once a feature of American life (we’ve all seen those old Westerns), it had been pretty much limitedto post offices in recent years.   But in the South, they’re being used to help catch criminals. Although there aren’t too many digital billboards – only around 500 out of atotal of 450,000 billboards, according to the industry – they’ve proved very useful, and very quick to react.   "We can be up in 15 minutes" of getting a suspect’s photo,said Troy Tatum, general manager of Baton Rouge, Louisiana based Lamar Advertising, the Baton Rouge. It provides free use of its billboards as wanted posters as apublic service.   Although used primarily for advertising, the digital billboards have proved effective so far for catching criminals. But they have another use, too, in informing motorists andothers of disasters. When a bridge collapsed in Minneapolis in August, an alert was on digital billboards within 15 minutes.