Our post on the flyer for missing music producer Chris Irwin noted that there was nothing on the L.A. Sheriff’s Department website to help the public. As of noon Friday, that is still true.

LA County seems to be behind the times. Back in March, Wired ran a piece titled “Collective Detective Police Work.” Excerpts:

“(In the case of a missing Florida girl, the internet) initiated a lot of our tips,” said Gail Tierney, the public information officer for the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office in Florida. “It’s multiplied many times over the number of websites out there (that) have also included her description and photo and contact information. So it’s been kind of a force multiplier for us.”

Many law enforcement agencies have long counted on broadcast and print media to help get assistance from the public in unsolved cases. Now they’re finding the internet can be just as valuable a resource, if not more so.

Many agencies — from sheriff and police departments to the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms — now put alerts pages on their websites that, while often rudimentary in design, provide specific information on wanted suspects, missing persons and more.

In fact, the L.A. Sheriff’s website looks as if it was designed circa 1997. It has no breaking news at all. A search for “missing persons” has no relevant hits.

In contrast, look at the cleanly designed San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s site. In two clicks you’re on their missing persons page. The LAPD missing persons page is a little harder to find, but it’s there.

In 2005, does it make sense for the L.A. Sheriff’s Department to ignore aid via the web? The flow of information would need to be managed and filtered, but they’re going to have to figure out how to do it sometime — why not now?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 26th, 2005 at 11:35 am by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Big Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.