Hello Everyone
Evelyn here,
In this week's Attorney General's News Briefs you will find that Attorney General Bill McCollum, Commissioner Bailey of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and Secretary McDonough of the Florida Department of Corrections and the Florida Association have united to implement an idea created by the US military in its efforts to find terrorists. The idea – to employ the use of specially designed playing cards to help solve cold cases. Please read.
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July 27, 2007
A Important Message from Attorney General Bill McCollum
In 2003, our forces in Iraq developed an ingenious way to seek information from the local residents about wanted criminals. A deck of playing cards was designed, each card featuring the wanted person's name, a picture if available, and the job performed by that individual.
The decks of cards were handed out to Iraqi civilians in an effort to generate information about where these criminals might be hiding.
This week, I joined with Commissioner Bailey of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Secretary McDonough of the Florida Department of Corrections and the Florida Association of Crime Stoppers to implement this idea in an innovative way. More than 100 of Florida’s unsolved cold cases were printed on two decks of playing cards and distributed among prison inmates with the intent that the cards would generate tips from the inmates to crack these cold cases.
Each card features a photograph and factual information about an unsolved homicide or missing person case. What is important to consider, however, is that each case featured on the cards is more than just a case file. The pictures represent victims with families who have
never had the closure so necessary when a loved one disappears or a life is cut tragically short.
Joining us as we distributed the cards at one of Florida’s correctional facilities were the families of several victims whose cases were among those featured in the decks. These people are holding steadfast to the hope that information about their loved ones is just a phone call away. Approximately 100,000 decks of cards were distributed, surely reaching individuals with specific knowledge essential to solving these crimes.
This is an exceptionally unique and creative approach towards solving cold cases, one that has already proved successful in Polk County. I believe this initiative will have an enormous effect on those cases which have eluded even the finest law enforcement officers throughout the state
and I look forward to the day when we will hear of the first cold case cracked from an inmate’s tip, knowing that day will mean so much to so many people. Thanks to innovation and cooperation, reaching that day and many more like it is only a matter of time.
[The decks can be viewed on the Department of Law Enforcement’s website
at http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/OSI/Unsolved. They can also be purchased
online at http:// www.EffectivePlayingCards.com.]
Thank you.
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Evelyn out.
