Wanted poster

Wanted poster for Percy Lefroy Mapleton (1881), the first such poster in Britain. Such posters were already common prior to this time in the United States.

Electronic wanted poster

A wanted poster (or wanted sign) is a poster distributed to let the public know of an alleged criminal whom authorities wish to apprehend. They will generally include either a picture of the alleged criminal when a photograph is available, or of a facial composite image produced by a police.

Description

The poster will usually include a description of the wanted person(s) and the crime(s) for which they are sought. Wanted posters are usually produced by a police department or other public government body for display in a public place, such as on a physical bulletin board or in the lobby of a post office, but in ages past wanted posters have also been produced by vigilante groups, railway security, private agencies such as Pinkerton, or by express companies that have sustained a robbery.

Electronic billboards

In 2007, the FBI began posting wanted posters on electronic billboards starting with 23 cities, and have been working to expand this system in other states. This allows them to instantly post a wanted notice in public view across the US. In 2010, the FBI claimed that at least 30 cases had been solved as a direct result of digital billboard publicity, and many others had been solved through the Bureau’s overall publicity efforts that included the billboards.^[1]

Bounty

Wanted posters for particularly notorious fugitives frequently offer a bounty for the capture of the person, or for a person who can provide information leading to such capture. More modern wanted posters may also include images of the fugitive's fingerprints.

Images

Composite images for use in wanted posters can be created with various methods, including:

E-FIT: Electronic Facial Identification Technique via computer
Identikit
PhotoFIT: Photographic Facial Identification Technique

Dead or alive

Historically, some wanted posters offering a reward contained the phrase "dead or alive". Thus one would get a reward for either bringing the person or his body to the authorities. This could indicate that the person was an outlaw, and that it was allowed to kill him. Alternatively it might mean that it was allowed to kill him if he resisted arrest.

References

^ Digital Billboards - Big Apple Joins National Initiative FBI, January 15, 2010

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[1] Digital Billboards - Big Apple Joins National Initiative FBI, January 15, 2010

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