The Fight Against Crime: Notes From The Front

Now, from the comfort of your home, you can meet up with some of the meanest dudes in the Valley.

There’s Armando (AKA “Creepy”), wanted by the police for allegedly beating three people with a baseball bat and beer bottle. Then there’s Leonard (“Stain”), suspect in an attempted murder by hammer; Frederick (“Bear”), wanted in connection with 10 business robberies in Van Nuys; plus alleged murderers, kidnappers and a man suspected of indecent exposure who is known only as “Naked Man in a White Van.”

They are all real people, but luckily, they won’t be coming in person to your house.

They’re on the Internet, courtesy of the LAPD’s “The Valley’s Most Wanted” site.

“These are really bad boys,” said Tom Kidd, senior lead officer in the West Valley for the Los Angeles Police Department. He’s in charge of preparing material for the Internet site, located on the World Wide Web.

The site was donated by physician Ed Lowder, who is part owner of a new Internet service, InstaNet, in Chatsworth.

“I work with the police a lot, doing exams after assaults, rapes, other crimes,” said Lowder, on his way to work at the Northridge Hospital Medical Center emergency room. “When we started this Internet business, I thought it would be a perfect place for local people to be able to find information about their community.”

It’s information, although local, that is available to people who surf the Internet from around the world. Many of these cyberfolks have probably not heard of Woodland Hills.

“The Internet is something everyone can use, but I think it can also be a good community bulletin board, a place where people can read about local fire protection, police matters, neighborhood meetings.”

In early September, the “Most Wanted” page went online. Currently, it profiles the 10 most wanted suspects in Valley crimes.

Most of these profiles include a picture, a description, a few sentences on the crime he is suspected of committing and additional information.

Leonard Wayne Andrews (“Stain”), for example, has a long beard in his picture, but the text cautions he is probably clean-shaven now.

Information about rewards or warnings that the suspect is likely to be armed are included.

The Internet listings have not resulted in any arrests, yet, but Lowder said it’s the most visited section of the LAPD site. “It will probably get a lot more visits, soon,” he said, because it recently became linked to a popular national “Most Wanted” site.

Another popular part of the LAPD site is the monthly Crime Map, posted by Kidd. It shows the parts of the West Valley where serious crimes occurred that month.

“We get calls from people all the time wanting to know about crime in a certain neighborhood,” Kidd said, “especially from people thinking about buying a house.

“Maybe having this on the Internet will lessen the burden of those calls.”

Kidd also posts to the site a monthly community report, which alerts residents to upcoming meetings, offers anti-crime tips, warns about con artists known to be working the area and reports on various Neighborhood Watch and other community groups.

“I’d like to eventually have an archive on the Internet of the reports going back a year,” he said, “so people can easily look up back issues.”

Lowder believes that the Internet is a perfect place to archive this kind of information.

“You can read something in a newspaper, but the next day it’s gone.” he said. “On the Internet, things can stay around for a long time.”