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FBI
Digital
Billboard Initiative
Catching Fugitives in the Information Age
12/24/14
In April 2013, a Buffalo grand jury indicted 33-year-old Oscar Romero
and other suspected members of the Loiza Boys gang, charging them with
heroin and cocaine distribution. After nearly a year on the run,
investigators received information that Romero had returned to the
Buffalo area from Puerto Rico, and the FBI deployed a powerful weapon
to help capture the fugitive—digital billboards.
The electronic billboards featuring Romero’s face—along with the words
“Wanted” and “Drug Charges” and a number to call—were posted in the
Buffalo area on March 31, 2014. Four days later, Romero turned himself
in.
“When our billboards went live, Oscar Romero had been a federal
fugitive for just shy of a year,” said Brian Boetig, special agent in
charge of the FBI’s Buffalo Division. “Our partnership with the local
billboard company generated media attention and conversations
throughout Romero’s West Side neighborhood, which pressured him into
safely surrendering.”
Similar events have occurred around the country, thanks to the FBI’s
National Digital Billboard Initiative, which began in 2007 in
Philadelphia when a graduate of the FBI’s Citizens Academy—who happened
to be an executive with Clear Channel Outdoor—offered to provide free
space on the company’s digital billboards to help catch criminals and
rescue missing children. (See sidebar.)
A Partnership is Born
In 2007, a vice president at Clear Channel Outdoor joined one of our
Citizens Academy classes in Philadelphia to learn more about the FBI.
She soon realized how helpful her company’s digital billboards could be
to the Bureau, and in September of that year, images of 11 violent
fugitives were posted on eight city billboards along with a hotline
number for the public to call.
By October, two of those fugitives were captured as a direct result of
the publicity. Weeks later, when a Philadelphia police officer was
killed while responding to an armed robbery, law enforcement was
quickly able to publicize the suspect on Clear Channel’s digital
billboards. (He was later apprehended in Florida.)
Based on the success of the Philadelphia program, the National Digital
Billboard Initiative was created, and today—thanks to the participation
of other companies who donate space—the FBI has access to more than
5,200 billboards nationwide.
Notable examples of billboard successes include:
- In 2013, aware of a media campaign featuring digital billboards that
was focusing on his criminal activities, Antoine Brooks—wanted for drug
distribution—turned himself in to the Philadelphia Police Department.
- During a 2013 confrontation with police in Newark, New Jersey, Hassan
Kendrick allegedly opened fired on several officers and was wanted for
aggravated assault. A citizen viewed Kendrick’s image on a digital
billboard and provided a tip leading to his capture in Florida in May
2014.
- In 2008, Richard Franklin Wiggins, Jr. was arrested for money
laundering and for ties to a drug trafficking organization three weeks
after his image appeared on digital billboards in the Norfolk, Virginia
area. Wiggins reportedly turned himself in at the insistence of family
and friends.
- Billboards have been incorporated into major investigations,
including Operation Cross Country—an annual nationwide enforcement
action focusing on underage victims of prostitution—and the effort to
identify victims of suspected serial child predator William James Vahey.
Since then, the program has recorded impressive growth—and results. To
date, the FBI has captured 53 individuals as a direct result of
billboard publicity, and the Bureau now has access to more than 5,200
billboards nationwide made available by a number of companies. The
billboard initiative is an excellent example of how law enforcement,
the private sector, and the public can all work together to bring
criminals to justice in today’s information age.
“We view the partnership with the FBI as a model of public service,”
said Nancy Fletcher, president and CEO of the Outdoor Advertising
Association of America (OAAA). “The billboard program makes a
difference, using the latest technology on behalf of public safety.”
The FBI has formal partnerships with OAAA, Clear Channel Outdoor, Lamar
Advertising Company, Outfront Media (formerly CBS Outdoor), Adams
Outdoor Advertising, the Fairway Media Group, CEMUSA, and the Outdoor
Advertising Association of Georgia. All these organizations—including
other digital advertisers who informally support the program—have been
critical to the success of numerous investigative efforts, because
digital billboards are extremely effective in reaching the public with
information about fugitives, missing persons, and public safety issues.
“The companies’ willingness to assist us in bringing criminals to
justice, as well as the speed in which they are able to publicize the
information, is a tribute to their organizations,” said Mike Kortan,
assistant director for the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs. “Their
efforts have given us an added edge to identify, locate, and apprehend
fugitives—and that, in turn, has helped to stop many criminals from
further victimizing the public.”
Because digital billboards can be quickly changed and updated,
information about a kidnapped child, a bank robbery, or a matter of
public safety can immediately be displayed. And messages can be
targeted to specific geographic locations, which is important when time
is of the essence.
And as the program expands, we are adding new formats. Fugitive
information, for example, is now being displayed on digital bus
shelters in Washington, D.C., and digital newsstands in New York City.
“Thanks to our partnerships, the billboard initiative has been a
tremendous success,” Kortan said. “We look forward to its continued
growth.”
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