During the summer of 2010, Det. Tony Matthews of the Lake Forest Park Police department set up a webpage called Can You ID (dot) Me. CanYouID.me
On the page, he posted the surveillance photos of people of interest in unsolved crimes in Lake Forest Park. Some of the photos were of suspects, some were of possible witnesses. All were people the police wanted to talk to.
With each photo, he posted the date, what the issue was, and some details about the crime. Contact information was provided for the detective working the case and responses could be anonymous.
Modeling his page after a highly successful site for Washington County, Oregon, his plan was to offer the page to all the police departments in the state of Washington.
He started with five departments. A year later, it had grown to include 33 police agencies from all over the state, and best of all, 12 people in the photos were identified through the site.
Today, sixty-eight police departments have signed on, and to date, 143 suspects have been identified.
The crimes range from shoplifting, to forgery, to arson. And the photos range from portrait quality to blurry shadows, but each them will be recognizable to someone who knows the person.
Criminals do not stay within their city's boundaries, but do tend to travel along highways, so check out the photos from neighboring communities.
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