Between the 1st of April 2008 to the 31 March 2009 the amount of serious crimes reported was approximately 2.1 million, (many go amiss as people are to scared, have no faith in the justice system or NEVER make it to the police station to make a statement)
That is 5 753 incidents a day.
What do we do? Wake up, go to work and hope it doesn’t happen to us and then sit there all indignant and depleted when it does.
In America Government and law enforcement agencies have been quite proactive about catching the perpetrators partnering with outdoor advertising agencies. A most current example of the effectiveness of this is when Virginia drug suspect Edward Myricks saw his photo on a giant digital billboard he didn’t even bother trying to outrun or outsmart the police. He knew his luck had run out and promptly handed himself over.
“We posted his photo on billboards in Newark (after learning the suspect had traveled there), and when he saw the billboards he turned himself in on March 11,” Chris Allen, an FBI spokesman, said.
In 2007 they ran the first test with digital billboard to capture criminals and now they run these in more than 40 states. Chris Allen explains that it is a real force multiplier as you now have the countries eyes as opposed to 10 agents.
Some other interesting cases that were solved, the apprehension of a serial bank robber, he pleaded to guilty to a robbery spree in Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana and Illinois.
Digital Billboards are outdoing TV and the internet in captures. Now isn’t that clever adspend!!!
- Justine Kettle, Posterscope OOH Planner
