Web Site Aims to Take Byte Out of Crime

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s newest substation is in cyberspace.

The county’s largest law enforcement agency has arrived on the World Wide Web with a high-tech collection of electronic wanted posters, crime information and victim referral information.

The Web site may be the most comprehensive online offering by any law enforcement agency in the country, according to Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Ron Wilkerson.

“We’re doing some things here that nobody else has done, and we anticipate offering even more in the future,” he said. “The potential is just remarkable.”

The sprawling site includes:

* Posted mug shots of wanted fugitives, with information about their alleged crimes and suspected whereabouts. The posters can be viewed in a gallery format. The faces of individual fugitives can be printed out as full-screen posters. With a click of a mouse, visitors to the Web site can send in electronic tips to investigators or pose questions.

* A listing of every call for service the Sheriff’s Department receives, from burglar alarms to homicide investigations. The listings include date, address, reason for call and a report number if an investigation was warranted. The “blotter” listing will be updated weekly, Wilkerson said.

* A year-to-date breakdown of crimes by category in each of the nine cities that contract for sheriff’s services and the unincorporated areas of Orange County. “There is nobody doing anything like this,” Wilkerson said. “It allows people to see what’s really going on in their area.”

* A victim information directory to guide people seeking information on domestic abuse--such as how to get counseling, file a civil action against an abuser or get a court restraining order.

The site also offers employment opportunities within the agency, a breakdown of different special services and information on the Orange County Jail.

The Web site was produced for free by employees of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and Irvine Police Department who donated their off-duty hours to the project, Wilkerson said. The only ongoing expense will be the cost of the site’s server, less than $1,000 a year, he said.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Web site can be visited online at https://www.ocsd.org