Lieutenant Hanrahan serves with the Fountain Valley, California, Police Department and is the system operator for the department's bulletin board. Fifteen years ago, few people had home computers. Today, personal computers are commonplace in homes across the nation, and many individuals consider them indispensable. With access to the Internet and other electronic databases, a large percentage of the public has begun to use home computers to communicate with other computer users around the world. Law enforcement agencies have discovered that they can use personal computers to enhance their ability to serve their communities.
Many departments use computers for writing reports and accessing wanted and warrant information.
Some departments can process and store fingerprints, mug shots, and other offender profile data. And, increasingly, law enforcement agencies use computers to nurture their relationships with citizens. While some agencies have chosen to maintain sites on the World Wide Web, others have elected to reach out to their communities using computer bulletin boards. This article details the history of computer bulletin boards and explains how law enforcement agencies can start their own bulletin boards and use them as public relations tools. During the adolescence of personal computers, a group of computer users emerged who made a hobby of seeing exactly what their computers could do.