When a 9-year-old Florida girl disappeared from her bedroom last week, the sheriff's office coordinating the search for her immediately posted a front-page alert on its website.
In the following days, countless sites around the country -- charitable organizations, churches and other groups -- joined the search for Jessica Lunsford. The sheriff's department received at least 300 tips, and dozens of sites posted details about Jessica on the web in the form of brief alerts or, in some cases, lengthy and regularly updated discussions of her case.
And while she's still missing, the sheriff's department says the internet has proven to be a powerful tool in trying to find her.
"It's very safe to say that it initiated a lot of our tips," said Gail Tierney, the public information officer for the Citrus County Sheriff's Office in Florida. "It's multiplied many times over the number of websites out there (that) have also included her description and photo and contact information. So it's been kind of a force multiplier for us."
Many law enforcement agencies have long counted on broadcast and print media to help get assistance from the public in unsolved cases. Now they're finding the internet can be just as valuable a resource, if not more so.
Many agencies -- from sheriff and police departments to the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms -- now put alerts pages on their websites that, while often rudimentary in design, provide specific information on wanted suspects, missing persons and more.
The San Luis Obispo County sheriff's website in California includes the names, photographs, descriptions and explanations of crimes committed by at-large suspects, along with police contact information for each case. The site provides similar information for missing persons, and gives general alerts about sex offenders in the area.
Of course, many law enforcement agencies still use television broadcasts and newspapers to get information to the public about open cases. But for the most part, those efforts reach only local audiences. The big advantage of the internet is that it instantly reaches people anywhere in the world.
According to David Conklin, a criminologist from the University of Florida, the internet provides one of the most efficient ways for law enforcement officials to get the word out that they need the public's help.
"The cost of putting ... information onto the internet is significantly lower than for other ways of getting the information to the public," said Conklin. "It is also easier to provide updates ... when that information is on the internet."
Conklin added that, while some law enforcement agencies may be more comfortable disseminating information about an unsolved case on television, the internet offers much broader application.
"There is ... the ability to put far more detail into an internet-based request for information than into any other request form," Conklin said. "Time concerns limit the material to only the most crucial on TV, but not on the internet."
Sean Donahue, the public information officer in the San Luis Obispo sheriff's department, said local news outlets often look at the department's website for alerts to broadcast.
That department has used the internet to get fruitful tips when trying to track down suspects, and is fine-tuning its website to improve the public's response, according to Donahue.
"Right now, understand, any time law enforcement gets a new tool, they learn by trial and error," he said.
In some situations, the public uses the web to take matters into its own hands. That happens when, for example, families of murder victims feel the police aren't making progress in solving the crimes. Thus, online sites like Real Crimes have come along, allowing people to publicize their own investigations and ask for help from the public.
While many of the cases posted on such sites go unsolved, some progress is often made because the people involved are eager to help each other follow paths police may not have considered.
"Since there are many cases on Real Crimes, we help each other, sharing information on how we searched the internet, what we discovered (and) who we could contact," said Pam Petrazzuoli, whose son's murder case was considered unsolvable by police. Thanks to Real Crimes, she said, an eyewitness in the case has come forward, though she acknowledged that the police have yet to accept the witness.
"Without the Real Crimes website, my son's case would not be out there for the public to read," she said.
Some criminologists believe broad calls for public help can create more problems than they resolve. Florida State University criminology professor Cecil Greek said he thinks police only ask for the public's help when no further leads can be pursued.
"Once you start doing that," he said, "you might get a bunch of bad clues from people that think they're helping (that you have to) sift through to get to the good ones."
But David Lawrence, a detective in the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office in California, said the risk of getting a mountain of useless tips is worth it if something good comes in.
"You just have to accept that," Lawrence said. "To get a few pieces of good information, you're going to have to put up with a lot of crackpots and other bogus information. You really don't know what's good until you check it out."
