Brown County Wanted Posters Put Up On Digital Billboards
The Brown County Sheriff's Department on Monday put up the first posters on a digital billboard north of Glory Road along U.S. 41. The warrants were for people wanted for crimes ranging from speeding to assault to littering.
"It doesn't matter what the crime is. If there's a warrant for someone, we're obligated to pick them up," sheriff's Lt. Keith Deneys said. "Some of these would require posting a minor bond amount to stay out of jail."
Deneys said the 14-by-48-foot billboard wanted poster is the first such effort in Brown County. He didn't know of any other programs using billboards to this extent.
The idea came after the county received a grant to reduce the number of outstanding warrants, which stands at about 3,500.
Jones Sign Co. donated the use of the billboard toward the effort.
"We wanted to help out in some way," said Christine Martens, senior sales director for outdoor advertising.
Pictures of 100 people with outstanding warrants will be displayed on the billboard over 10 days with 10 new photos displayed per day. During the last few days all the posters will run on the billboards so that the 100 are shown again.
Included in the first group of 10 is a picture of one person who was captured and jailed after the recent amnesty days as well as one person who took advantage of a recent amnesty offering that allows people with outstanding warrants to avoid jail if they pay their fine, Deneys said.
About 12 people took the amnesty offer by Nov. 20 and made arrangements with judges to stay out of jail.
"It wasn't as many as we would have liked," he said.
People with outstanding warrants who did not make arrangements by Nov. 20 could see their photos on billboards between now and Dec. 13. The photos come from jail booking files or driver license files.
December 02, 2009
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