After getting a ticket recently, one of my relatives, who shall remain nameless, vented his anger at the police department in the only way he knew how: He wrote them an email gloating that their website looked like crap. Pathetic, I know, but technically he wasn't wrong. If he lived in Milwaukee, however, he'd have to come up with some other insult—because ad agency Cramer-Krasselt has given that city's police force a site it can be proud of. The recently unveiled MilwaukeePoliceNews.com, created pro bono, features great photography, an easily navigated interface, seamlessly embedded social-media accounts, a live stream of current crime rates, and more. It's quite possibly the world's best-looking police website.
The agency's executive creative director, Chris Jacobs, says in a statement: "Truth is, 99 percent of government websites are no pleasure to visit or navigate, with key information scattered or buried. But Chief [Edward A.] Flynn gave us a rare opportunity: the chance to turn bureaucracy into a thing of beauty. The user experience is easy and graceful. The photography is bold and engaging—in fact, we even leveraged 3D photography to create a parallax effect which provides depth and movement to the images as you change from screen to screen. In the end, we created a government social website that doesn't feel anything like a government social website."
Nor is the site just a pretty face, says Flynn. "We can't create safe, sustainable neighborhoods without the support of local residents to help the men and women wearing the badge," he says. "MilwaukeePoliceNews.com gives us a direct communications channel to engage and empower citizens in our ongoing efforts to create a safer and more secure city."
Coming soon: location-based check-ins for fugutives?
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