Those who picked up today’s newspaper likely saw on the front page a new weekly feature called “Niles’ Most Wanted.”

It is being created with information provided by the Niles Police Department.

First, we’d like to thank the police department for their assistance in creating the list and pulling the information about each of the most wanted.

The plan is to run a new set of “most wanted” individuals each week and update readers when previous “most wanted” people have been caught.

The purpose is twofold.

We want to keep you informed of the people in the community who are wanted by police.

We also want to help you assist police in finding these individuals.

The concept isn’t anything new.

The FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list has been in existence since March 14, 1950. A reporter for the International News Service asked the FBI for the names and descriptions of the “toughest guys” the Bureau would like to capture. The resulting story generated so much publicity and had so much appeal that late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover implemented the “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” program. The first person to be placed on the list was Thomas James Holden, wanted for the murder of his wife, her brother, and her stepbrother.

Since its inception, 504 fugitives have been on the “Top Ten” list, and 473 have been apprehended or located.

While we don’t expect to reach those figures — although that would be great — we hope to help police catch at least a few people.

After all, police rely heavily on the assistance of citizens to bring criminals to justice.

This type of feature is one small thing we can do to help make our community a better and safer place to live.

 

Opinions expressed are those of the editorial board consisting of Publisher Michael Caldwell and editors Ambrosia Neldon, Craig Haupert, Ted Yoakum and Scott Novak.