Wilmington’s most wanted maps
Is this creepy? It seems useful for finding out if your neighbors are perps, but not for “doing something about it.”
….And now you may be able to do something about it.
The Star-News unveils a new interactive map and database today that you can use to see who’s wanted on warrants and other types of legal documents and the last address police had for those people.
Map is here: Wilmington fugitives
Ian, akin to Wilmington’s Most Wanted Maps, similarly here in Napa, CA our local newspaper, The Napa Valley Register (www.napavalleyregister.com)every few days posts a Crime Map. The icons are the same except color coded for property crimes, stolen vehicles & theft from vehicles. Take a look, significant portions of the city are lit up with colored balloons! Is this helpful? Who knows, but not at apparently stopping crimes.
That is creepy, useless(what good is an old address?) and a little invasive, I think. Of course I still get creeped out when I see the home address of some poor lawbreaking sod listed in the newspaper. Its like an invitation to all vigilantes–don’t like the way the police handled it? Here’s the address go take care of it yourself.
I guess that shouldn’t be so shocking to me as the South is known for its vigilance committees, ‘…such groups organized to terrorize and control Negroes and Abolitionists and, during the Civil War, to suppress support of the union’. (Webster’s)
So nothing new I guess.
That’s what this country needs — more fear and paranoia. “Cops” and the “Twilight Zone” meet the struggling newspaper industry. Caroling is for wimps. Fire up the torches and let’s go on a witch hunt!
But seriously, is anyone else concerned about the unintended consequences of such a program?
In a way it’s analogous to the wildly successful Crime-stoppers! television program (?), the one where they show mugshots and you call in if you’ve seen them?
Once the technological genie is out of the bottle (in this case: excellent, freely exploitable web-based maps, GIS data, and public databases — all of which can be “mashed-up” by any 13 year old these days), it’s not a question of “if” really, is it?
From wanted site creator and Star News metro editor Vaughn Hagerty:
Forum:
http://forums.starnewsonline.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6431032365/m/4021096576
My response in those forums:
RACHEL wrote:
I guess that shouldn’t be so shocking to me as the South is known for its vigilance committees, ‘…such groups organized to terrorize and control Negroes and Abolitionists and, during the Civil War, to suppress support of the union’. (Webster’s)
And California (of about that vintage) is known for its Fortyniners, but the last time I was in the neighborhood, I didn’t see a single soul with a pickax slung over his shoulder or a bag of gold dust on his belt.
Normally, I would allow the regional chauvinism (MWonline: undue partiality or attachment to a group or place to which one belongs or has belonged) on a blog I’ve never visited before to go unchallenged, but this claims to be for and/or about the place I currently call home, and a comment like that from someone who presumably isn’t here and quite possibly has never been anywhere near here, just gets my hackles up.
The Napa CA Register also posts a “Napa’s Most Wanted” database, updated weekly. While it doesn’t exactly resemble the Wilmington Star-News map, instead, after clicking on the link, the current listing comes up complete with photo, name, date of birth, physical description, wanted for, bail & last known address. The website also touts that “30 persons on our list have been taken in by law enforcement or turned themselves in since September,2007.” Is this practice the norm for small communities with local dailies? In this case I guess the east and west coasts have something very much in common.
Did anyone look at Wilmington’s most wanted? Several are genuine outlaws like sex offenders that failed to register, coke dealers, multiple burglars, etc. But one sad sap is wanted for, get this: “breaking and entering a coin operated machine.”
I think we need color-coding like Grant mentioned (http://www.napavalleyregister.com/maps/blotter/). Almost all the ones I can find in a casual check on our own WMW are “Failure to appear”