Help Find Perps With PostACrime

This morning I found a relatively-new site called PostACrime.com. This site helps you to solve crimes by viewing video posted by store owners when a crime was committed. Some of the crimes posted even have cash rewards for a conviction. Most of the posted crimes currently come from Los Angeles, up the Oregon/Washington border and in Washington, D.C on the east coast.

The site uses a Google Maps mashup to find the crime and has videos and text about the perp. They even sell a "gold protection pack" (sounds kinky) with stickers for merchants to place in their shops. If they were smart, they would give them for free as it would be excellent marketing. Not sure who will pay $60 for a pack of stickers.

Most of the functions require an account and I wonder if they/police would receive more tips if you could do it anonymously. You can even post a perp’s info directly to Digg! The service is free and is ad-supported.

The sheriff in the town where the site is founded said today that he doesn’t mind PostACrime but he fears that sites like this could cause a perp to know more about an investigation than the police want shared.

Bad boys… bad boys… what’chu gonna do, what’chu gonna do when the Internet comes for you?