The Massachusetts Bankers Association and law enforcement officials this week relaunched their popular crime-fighting site, MassMostWanted, updating the site with mobile functionality, social media integration and more.
“The program’s been extremely successful. It gets nearly 3 million hits per year; it’s been a continuous source of leads for law enforcement in identifying people involved in bank robberies and other assorted crimes,” said Kevin Kiley, chief operating officer of the Massachusetts Bankers Association. “From our standpoint, public safety is a top priority. We care greatly about the safety and protection of our customers and employees and will do whatever we can to continue that effort.”
The site originally launched in 2002 as a collaboration among the association, the Metro Law Enforcement Council and the FBI’s Boston office in response to a dramatic increase in the number of bank robberies after 9/11. Kiley added that around this time, banks also began posting “no hats, no hoods, no sunglasses” signs in their branches in an effort to better identify bank robbers.
Norwood Police Department Chief Bill Brooks said he reached out to the association around that time to do whatever he could to help. He credits Lt. Leo Hoban of the Westwood Police Department with launching and maintaining it in its early years and said the site helps improve coordination among departments.
“It’s not just about making an arrest,” Brooks said, pointing out that many of the suspects featured on MassMostWanted are serial offenders and catching them after the first or second robbery is a benefit to public safety.
“When the Mass. Bankers and Chief Brooks reached out to me back in 2002 or so, it was an exciting project, it was definitely local, and we thought it would be a fun project to take on,” said Spencer Collier, the CEO of GetFused, which developed the site.
“About a year and a half ago, we said, ‘Guys, this website gets a tremendous amount of traffic. Every law enforcement official in the state checks out this site on a daily basis. It doesn’t look right on mobile. We need to revisit this,’” he said.
The newer, sleeker MassMostWanted also features a category for ATM skimming criminals, MyPD app integration, improved analytics and tracking, new search capabilities, and an RSS feed option.
Since its inception, more than 7,000 criminals have been posted to MassMostWanted and the site has helped law enforcement nab more than 1,700 of them. Collier is particularly fond of recounting the story of a criminal who was spotted viewing his own photo on the computer in a local library.
“We’ve had people who’ve been arrested with the case page from the site folded up in their pocket,” Brooks added.
“I think it’s a good private-public partnership. The police can’t do all these things alone, and the banks are obviously the victims here. This is a great way for them to help us protect their customers and their tellers,” he said. “It really is a classic public-private partnership.”
The site can be viewed at MassMostWanted.org.
