Focus on crime prevention: creative solutions to traditional problems.

Creative Solutions to Traditional Problems

As the 21st century approaches, law enforcement agencies rush to adopt cutting-edge solutions to their communities' crime problems. Yet, creative crime prevention techniques need not be high-tech. Indeed, many police departments have found innovative solutions using technology considered almost antiquated by today's standards. This article highlights some of the creative crime prevention approaches currently in use in police agencies across the country.

FAST FAX

A decade ago, the facsimile (fax) machine changed the way businesses communicated. Furthermore, while once only a free-standing fax machine could be used, today, computer users can fax to multiple recipients from their own desk-top machines.

Police departments have discovered the benefits of the fax. With its Fast Fax program, the Fairfax County, Virginia, Police Department can send important information to hundreds of local businesses in a matter of minutes.

Crime analysts who administer the program in each of the department's seven stations prepare faxes when appropriate. A fax might detail a recent robbery and describe the suspect or notify business owners of the next scheduled crime prevention meeting. The officer preparing the fax transmits it to a local firm with the technological capabilities to fax numerous locations quickly. An automated system allows the officer to give instructions on the number of recipients and the time the fax should be transmitted. The company sends the fax for no charge.

Since the program's inception in July 1994, seven cases have been solved as a direct result of Fast Fax. What cannot be counted, however, are the number of crimes that never were committed because business owners had advanced warning of suspicious activity.

Moreover, when programs work, other departments use them. The Virginia State Police recently adopted the program's prescription fraud component, which warns pharmacies of individuals' attempting to fill fraudulent prescriptions.

BEEP-A-BEAT

Pagers, or beepers, helped business people stay in touch with their clients before the advent of cellular phones. Today, pagers have gained widespread use, ranging from parents wanting to keep in contact with their children to illegal drug users trying to connect with their neighborhood dealer.

In some Chicago neighborhoods, community policing officers carry beepers to help them respond to the concerns of local business owners. To divert nonemergency calls from an overburdened 911 system, shopkeepers report such incidents as loitering, shoplifting, panhandling, parking problems, and suspicious activity.

Unlike pagers of the past that merely displayed phone numbers, these can deliver detailed messages. Business owners can dial the officer's pager directly or call a toll-free number and give a detailed message to the operator, who relays the message to the officer's pager. A local firm donates the airtime and pagers to equip four foot patrol officers.

Area business owners have enthusiastically endorsed the 3-year-old program. They appreciate the fast response they get from police whether they are in trouble or merely need help with a problem, such as loitering, illegal parking, or a person acting suspiciously. One business owner who beeped the beat officer about a suspicious person thwarted a potential purse-snatching and carjacking.

FLEET WATCH

A solid relationship with local businesses also forms the foundation for a program in Prince William County, Virginia. Modeled after a Springfield, Illinois, initiative, Fleet Watch enlists the aid of business people who spend the majority of their workdays on the road. Equipped with nothing more technical than a mobile phone or access to a radio dispatcher, Fleet Watchers remain alert for suspicious or illegal activity while conducting their usual business as utility operators, taxi drivers, couriers, tow truck operators, and the like.

Vehicles sport a red, white, and blue Fleet Watch bumper sticker with a Prince William County Police badge, to serve as both a beacon to citizens who may need help and a deterrent to would-be criminals. After obtaining detailed descriptions of suspects and incidents, participants phone the police department to relay the information. They do not make contact with the suspects themselves.

As commuters make their daily treks into Washington, DC, and surrounding counties, their automobiles--left unattended in commuter lots--become easy targets for vandals and thieves. With over 10,000 participants, the Fleet Watch program has proved particularly effective in curbing these types of crimes. In addition, because burglars in the county average in age from 13 to 19, Fleet Watchers help prevent burglaries by turning in truant teens.

CITIZENS CRIME WATCH

Citizens still reap most of the benefits of community policing. Two programs use the telephone to keep citizens in contact with their local police.

The Dade County Neighborhood Cellular Watch Project

In many jurisdictions, cellular phone providers have formed partnerships with the police and equipped officers with cellular phones. In a new twist, a provider in Florida joined forces with the Metro-Dade Police Department, the Metro-Dade County Manager's Office, and Florida International University (FIU) in a project to put cellular phones in the hands of citizens.

With 50 cellular phones and free airtime, residents in 11 Dade County neighborhoods formed the basis for the Dade County Neighborhood Cellular Watch Project. Residents who observed crimes in progress or other suspicious activity used the phones to call police. Graduate students from FIU evaluated the program after 9 months and discovered that, in the participating neighborhoods, the number of major crimes had dropped dramatically. In one neighborhood, burglaries had fallen 35 percent.

Additional benefits included a decrease in fear among residents, the belief that they could make a difference, an increased willingness to report suspicious activity, and faster response times by police. Finally, residents believed the program produced a deterrent effect among would-be criminals, who feared being turned in by a cellular phone-wielding citizen.

Based on the success of the pilot project' the Cellular Watch Project continues today. Citizens' Crime Watch of Dade County, an all-volunteer citizens group, now runs the program, giving residents an even larger stake in their neighborhood's crime prevention efforts.

The Community Beat Information Mailbox System

Citizens in Berkeley, California, also can attest to the benefits of working closely with their local police department. With its telephone voice-mail system, the Berkeley Police Department exchanges crime and incident information with community residents.

Four coordinators divide 18 beats among them and record information on recently committed crimes, prevention measures, and the like. When citizens access the system they receive instructions for retrieving and recording messages, as well as the date a new message will be recorded. The area coordinators update messages at least once a week, and many citizens call weekly to hear the latest news. In fact, if the new message gets delayed, some citizens quickly voice their disappointment.

Although the phone company cannot track the number of calls the system receives, contacts with citizens indicate that they like the program. Residents who once felt at odds with police due to a lack of communication now feel satisfied with the level of interaction that exists. Most residents have developed a greater awareness of crime prevention strategies and pay more attention to safety issues. Moreover, they feel more secure, especially because they can obtain the latest facts on crimes that have occurred in their neighborhoods. Beat officers express their enthusiasm for the voice-mail system by calling to check messages on their days off.

And, in a part of the program they have dubbed "Operation Guest Star," the system coordinators periodically allow beat officers to record messages themselves. Residents like the personal contact with their community officers.

DEVELOPING EVIDENCE INSTANTLY

Computers are changing the way police departments document and store evidence. Digital imaging, for example, allows officers to take video at the scene of a crime, then store the images in the computer. Still, many jurisdictions find the 50-year-old technology of Polaroid instant photography beats more advanced methods. The Randolph, Massachusetts, Police Department takes Polaroids of injuries to domestic violence victims. In conjunction with other evidence, the photos convict offenders without subjecting victims to the trauma of a court appearance.

The Quincy, Massachusetts, District Court uses instant photos to publicize its "Most Wanted Probation Absconder List." As a condition of their probation, offenders convicted of domestic violence who violate probation get their photographs and descriptions published in the local paper, along with the details of their crimes. After their photographs appear in the paper, many of these offenders are turned in by others; sometimes they surrender to avoid further disgrace.

As gang activity threatens an increasing number of communities, police officers look for new ways to fight back. Instant photography can help. Because gang members use graffiti to communicate, their writings can alert the police to potential problems. But graffiti can be fleeting--a rival gang may write over it; concerned community residents may clean it up. The immediate nature of Polaroid photographs makes them an effective tool for documenting graffiti before it changes or disappears. The California State Police and many other departments use Polaroids in this manner.

BANKING ON COMMUNITY SAFETY

Automatic teller machines (ATMs) offer customers convenient access to their money 24 hours a day. At the same time, customers occupied at the ATM often become easy targets for robbers, who can steal their cash and also force them to withdraw more funds. After a rash of ATM robberies from December 1994 to January 1995, the Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Police Department instituted a program that seemed to be the most logical answer to ATM crime. The department installed a cash machine in each of its four county stations. In doing so, Anne Arundel became one of only a few other jurisdictions--including Los Angeles County, Chicago, and Philadelphia--with ATMs in police stations.

ATM robberies dropped from 8 in 1995 to 1 in 1996 and 1 in 1997. And, despite the increasing boldness of many criminals, none has been so brazen as to attempt to rob ATM customers at the police station.

The most noticeable benefits have come in the form of increased contact between the police and the citizens who do their banking at the station ATM. An unanticipated benefit has been an increased use of ATMs by senior citizens, most likely motivated by the security these new cash machines offer.

CONCLUSION

New technology can enhance the effectiveness of law enforcement, and police departments should not fear putting these ideas into practice. Yet, the solution to some problems may lie in using a tried-and-true tool in a new and different way. "Thinking outside the box" is the phrase often applied to such experimentation.

From equipping neighborhood watch groups with cellular phones to faxing businesses important crime information, police DEPARTMENTS are discovering creative approaches to traditional problems. And, because many of these methods involve members of the community, a sort of synergy develops, making the police more effective and residents more willing to become involved. When that happens, the level of technology used matters less than the spirit of cooperation that develops. In the end, it's the people who make the difference.

RELATED ARTICLE: Creative Crime Prevention Programs

For more information on the programs featured in this article, contact the person named below.

Police Station ATMs

Anne Arundel County Police Department Captain Michael P. Fitzgibbons 410-222-8512

Beep-A-Beat

Chicago Police Department Officer Jeff Alcantar 312-747-6208, ext. 121

Berkeley Community Beat Information Mailbox System

Berkeley Police Department Officer Rob Westerhoff 510-644-6215

Dade County Neighborhood Cellular Watch Project

Metro-Dade Police Department Lt. Gerald A. Rudoff 305-471-1746

Fast Fax

Fairfax County Police Department Officer Curtis Stafford 703-644-7377

Fleet Watch

Prince William County Police Department Sr. Officer Mark A. Williams 703-792-7232

Most Wanted Probation Absconder List

Quincy, Massachusetts, District Court Assistant Chief Probation Officer Bruce Carr 617-847-8963, extension 114

Domestic Violence Victims

Randolph, Massachusetts, Police Department Det. Sgt. Paul Porter 617-963-1212

Mrs. Waggoner serves as an associate editor for the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.