Pinterest is great for folks who like to plan stuff that involves lists, especially wish lists, such as a new living room, wedding or dream vacation. Today, however, I heard a higher order use for Pinterest as the virtual post office wall of Wanted Posters. National Public Radio reports on an innovative use of Pinterest…

A crime reporter at The Mercury in Pottstown had the idea to start a gallery of mug shots of people wanted by the police. Pottstown Police Capt. F. Richard Drumheller says calls came in to his tip line right away.

“We’ve actually seen a 57 percent increase in our warrant services, and we actually got more people based on our tips and our calls,” Drumheller says.

“Warrant services” is police speak for arrests.

“For us it’s like, ‘Yes,’ because it’s very enjoyable in police work when the public helps you,” Drumheller says.

This isn’t a most wanted list. Pottstown has a couple of dozen photos up at a time, all people with outstanding warrants — from DUI to theft to assault. Drumheller says some people even called to say they had seen their own mug shot online and asked how to turn themselves in to authorities.

Just a quick aside for folks who haven’t used Pinterest. To me it’s akin to a high school locker – you post pictures you like on it so that everyone can see them. Only no tape required. You can create virtual boards and tag (add descriptive terms to) them so that people can find you either based on their relationship to you or based on their interest in a term you’ve used to tag your board and/or the pictures you pin to that board. You can “pin” pictures you run across on other websites (or upload your own). Pinterest has a small app you can add onto your browser to make it easier to pin things as you see them.

People can comment on and share your pinned pictures (“pins”). So in the case of the virtual Wanted board, people could comment if they had knowledge of the pins in question.