Feds Launch New Most Wanted Website

by Bay City News

Federal and local law enforcement officials launched a new website aimed at using anonymous tips to capture wanted fugitives in the Bay Area and Northern California. The U.S. Marshals Service Northern District of California, FBI and Northern California Regional Intelligence Center announced the new websitewww.northerncaliforniamostwanted.org in San Francisco during a news conference Tuesday afternoon. 

The website displays information and photos of wanted criminals with active warrants from 15 Northern California counties stretching from Del Norte to Monterey counties, Northern California Regional Intelligence Center Director Mike Sena said. The site provides a physical description, photos and synopsis of a crime committed by the fugitive, Sena said. Tips will be immediately forwarded to agents on the field making for an efficient system, U.S. Marshal Northern District of California Donald O'Keefe said. 

The public can read tips submitted in the past 90 days on the website. Law enforcement officials can view comments posted by the public and ask questions creating a two-way conversation, Sena said. Each tip will have an assigned number available only to the submitter and investigator assigned to the case, he said. Submitters may also provide their name and contact information for the investigator's use. Helping law enforcement can be a "complex and dangerous risk" but officials hope the anonymous feature of the site will elicit more tips, O'Keefe said. 

No tip is too big or small and won't go unchecked, O'Keefe said. The crimes posted on the site range from homicide to terrorist support cases in addition to the three individuals who escaped from Alcatraz Island in 1962. Other attendees at Tuesday's news conference included FBI Special Agent in Charge David Johnson, Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent, San Francisco Police Deputy Chief John Loftus, and representatives from the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Board of Directors.