New Digital Billboards to Assist Seattle FBI

The Seattle FBI has a new tool to help solve cases, catch fugitives, find missing children, provide security notifications, and advertise jobs. Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO) has launched its newest digital billboards in the Kent area and now provides billboard space to the FBI as a public service. This partnership in Washington state is part of an expanding national initiative that was established in Philadelphia in December 2007 when a CCO executive, who was attending the FBI Citizen’s Academy, offered to provide free billboard space to the Philadelphia FBI. That collaboration was soon taken to a national level and in the first few months of operation, a number of fugitives from multiple cities across the country were apprehended as a direct result of tips received from the billboards. Following that early success, other digital billboard companies joined the effort and today the FBI has access to more than 1,000 billboards in 40 states, all at no cost to the American taxpayer.

Law enforcement has long been aware of the value of enlisting the help of the news media and the public in identifying bank robbers, locating fugitives, and solving missing person cases. Digital billboards, which are located in high traffic areas, are uniquely effective in this effort because the information displayed can be changed at a moments notice providing the FBI with an opportunity to rapidly communicate with the traveling public.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, the CCO digital billboards featured a request for public assistance in locating a missing McCleary, Washington girl, 10-year-old Lindsey Baum. This was the first local matter addressed by this new FBI-CCO partnership.  Anyone who was in McCleary, Washington on Friday, June 26, 2009 between 8-12 p.m. is asked to call the dedicated tip line at 866-915-8299.

Beginning tomorrow, the CCO digital billboards will feature the local FBI case of the unsolved homicide of Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Wales who was killed on October 11, 2001. A reward of up to $1 million has been offered for information leading to the identification of the person(s) responsible. Go to www.wales.fbi.gov for more information about the case. Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI at 206-622-0460.