Ankeny Police Department Launches "Most Wanted" Section on Website

The Ankeny Police Department is making it a little easier for the public to assist officers in locating wanted persons within the community.

The department launched Ankeny's Most Wanted yesterday, a section on the city of Ankeny's website that depicts surveillance camera photographs of persons wanted for shoplifting, forgery, identity theft and robbery.

According to a news release issued by the city of Ankeny, the site was launched as a result of increasing surveillance technology that continues to capture crimes and criminals in the act committing those crimes.

“Our goal is to enhance and complement the security provisions already in use by our businesses,” said Police Chief Gary Mikulec in the release. “These photographs and surveillance footage serve no purpose in an evidence vault so we decided to enlist the help of every person interested in helping to catch a criminal by publicizing these cases on line.”

The Ankeny Police Department will update cases as often as a few times weekly and backfill solved cases with newer cases as they occur.

The release also states the police department will have a strong visibility in Ankeny's shopping districts. Additionally, undercover police officers will monitor parking lots, deploy a bait car and target organized shoplifting groups in cooperation with loss prevention specialists already in place at many of our retail establishments.