68-Year-Old Arlington Male Seeks Underage Friends on Myspace

Behold: the Arlington County Police Department MySpace page.

According to Thursday's press release from the ACPD, the goal of this project is to get kids to add the police as a friend, warding off sexual predators as vampires to garlic. From the release:

“We don’t want to mislead any kids or their parents into thinking this will completely protect them online,” said Chief Scott. “But if they add a link to our page, hopefully the police emblem will scare off anyone with unscrupulous motives.”

I don't really have an opinion about how effective this strategy will be. But I will commend the interns who designed the page. From the S.W.A.T. soundtrack to the "black and yellow on bright blue" color scheme, they've really captured the essence of the MySpace aesthetic. Coupled with the actual content of the page (safetey tips and whatnot), their profile has a pretty decent hip-to-be-square thing going on. If they can keep it fresh by adding interesting content on a regular basis, and ideally put a human face on it, they might have a shot at building something that's meaningful to the kids they're reaching out to.

Now where's our Twitter-based crime blotter?