By Nicholas J.C. Pistor
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
BELLEVILLE, Ill. — The St. Clair County sheriff’s department website lists Brian Higgenbottom as a most-wanted fugitive. In reality, he’s been nabbed already and is serving a three-year sentence at the Lawrence Correctional Center in Sumner, Ill., for aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
The website’s “Top 10 Most Wanted” list hasn’t been updated for years. The “Drug House of the Month” has been the same for month after month. Many of the website’s other features have also languished.
It’s a feature shared by several other area law enforcement websites, on which content is often outdated - or nonexistent.
St. Clair County Sheriff Mearl J. Justus said the department, which is responsible for funding and updating the website, has talked about the need to update more frequently. The veteran lawman said it’s a question of priorities, and he would rather direct money toward putting deputies on the street and dealing with the county’s crowded jail than updating a website.
To its credit, the department has caught most of the men and women on the list of most wanted on its website - a list that proclaims the suspects wanted “as of Tuesday, March 22, 2005.”
The St. Clair County sheriff’s department website does have a lot of content. It has a detailed telephone directory and list of services for older adults, as well as neighborhood watch and drug prevention information.
The Madison County sheriff’s department website appears to be more up-to-date, but it lacks useful content such as jail inmate and bail information.
Both sites provide links to the more active Illinois State Police website, which is updated daily. That site provides a sex offender registry that allows residents to search for sex offenders by name or address.
“It’s a very popular and useful feature,” Master Sgt. Brian Ley said. “School districts use it, parents use it, everybody uses it.”
The Illinois State Police also have an online listing of methamphetamine manufacturers convicted in the state.
The Alton Police Department website features a computer crime section, which features videos teaching site visitors how to keep their computers free from spyware and allows visitors to download identity-theft complaint forms.
Belleville police operate an updated, easy-to-navigate website that details the city’s laws, designed to quickly answer common questions from residents. What time is curfew? Before 12:01 a.m. on weekends. Can residents burn leaves? Yes, from April 15 to May 15, and from Oct. 1 to Dec. 15 - but only between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Meanwhile, a resident searching for a Monroe County sheriff’s website will have a hard time. The department doesn’t have an online home.
Copyright 2007 St. Louis Post-Dispatch