New Web site includes local ‘most wanted’ list

Online portal gives details about programs, services
By VINCE LUECKE
Editor, Perry County News

TELL CITY – A new Web site launched this week by Perry County Prosecutor Robert Collins and his staff offers everything from a local list of most-wanted criminals to detailed descriptions of programs and services administered by the prosecutor’s office.

Its features include downloadable forms, a list of recent news stories and announcements and links to dozens of other sites related to victims’ rights, child support, Internet safety and law enforcement.

“We’ve done everything we can to make the site easy-to-navigate and informational,” Collins said Monday during a tour of the site before its launch. Located at www.perrycountyprosecutor.com, the Web site has been in the planning phase for several months and under construction by Webmaster Brandi Hess since the first of the year.
The site’s home page serves as a starting point with a welcome from Collins and a list of recent stories, many of them linked from The News’ Web site. The home page also offers a menu of selections, leading viewers into a program-by-program description of services related to child support, rights of custodial and non-custodial parents, victim advocacy and protective services.

The prosecutor’s office has offered a collection program for bad checks for several years and a separate section offers information to merchants about the service and a downloadable form for beginning an investigation into fraudulent check activity.

Other menu items lead to sections about deferral programs for infractions and the misdemeanor-diversion program. Other forms can be downloaded for those programs.
The site includes telephone numbers of the office, e-mail contacts for Collins and his staff and a tip line for reporting suspected crimes. Other links lead to a brochure about methamphetamine use and presentations about the dangers of the drug.

The “Warrants” section of the new site connects to a list of men and women wanted on criminal warrants. Two other lists identify people wanted on warrants for not paying child support or who have allegedly passed bad checks.

All of the information is public record and could have been accessed at the courthouse, but Collins said the Web site offers an opportunity to present the information on people sought by police in a single location.

Links
The site offers dozens of local, state and federal links, covering local law-enforcement agencies, child-support enforcement and groups that provide information and assistance to the victims of crime. A link takes viewers to the statewide database of sex offenders. Web sites maintained by local groups such as Crisis Connection, and state agencies, including the Indiana Department of Correction, which maintains an offender registry, are also linked through the site. Other links lead to Web sites of the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice.