Published: May 07, 2008 07:01 pm         

Digital billboards display FBI fugitive information

AVON, Ind. — A public safety partnership with Clear Channel Outdoor-Indianapolis allows agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation a new avenue to distribute information on fugitives.

Special Agent Wendy Osborne, of the FBI headquarters in Indianapolis, said agents worked out a deal with Clear Channel Outdoor officials to use electronic billboards to display information on four wanted suspects.

She said the suspects are wanted for questioning in connection with a federal drug trafficking conspiracy.

Osborne said the billboard is like a high definition television. Unlike the billboards that change advertisements by flipping panels, this billboard displays information much like a regular billboard, but it can be changed throughout the day.

She said every eight seconds, the billboard will display the fugitives’ information.

“The switch was flipped on April 24,” she added.

The billboard is in a high-traffic area near Interstate 70 westbound, just one mile east of State Road 267 in Plainfield.

Osborne said the billboard is two-sided, so commuters traveling either way are able to see the information.

“It will reach a large number of commuters every single day,” she added.

The fugitives featured on the billboard are Dawan Calhoun, Jonathan Furr, David Lee Harrington, and Jarvis Watson.

Anyone with information on the men is asked to call the FBI’s Indianapolis headquarters at 639-3301.



Amanda Roach writes for the Hendricks County Flyer in Avon, Ind