VIDEO HELPS VICTIMS AID POLICE.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Daily News Staff Writer

You've been carjacked and robbed. Police ask you: How big was the gun? Big - real big, you tell them, remembering only staring down the barrel. The man holding the weapon was just a blur.

Too often, that's the kind of information rattled crime victims give to police. And it's not the detailed data that can help solve a crime.

But when the victim sees a gun on TV a few days later and recognizes it as being like the gun used to threaten him, or recalls some details of the criminal's appearance, he seldom calls police to divulge what he's remembered, said Ray Bray, senior consultant for California's Office of Peace Officer Standards and Training and executive producer of POST's Long-Distance Learning Program.

``When people calm down, they start remembering things - things that can help the police solve their crime,'' Bray said. ``But they don't want to `bother' the police.''

Later this year, crime victims and survivors of victims can get reassurance, find out how they can help the police catch the crook who victimized them, and learn how the criminal justice system works by viewing a videotape being produced by POST. The tape will be broadcast via closed circuit in March to all law enforcement agencies in the state, which can tape and copy the information to give or loan to crime victims and their families, Bray said.

Representatives of law enforcement agencies in Ventura and Los Angeles counties say they want to view the video before deciding whether to provide copies to victims.

The video features police, attorneys and judges talking about how police investigate a crime and how criminals are prosecuted in the court system.

``People have funny ideas about how the police work, from seeing TV shows,'' Bray said. ``They assume that because there was one fingerprint at the scene, we'll have the crook's name and Social Security number in an hour. ... It doesn't happen that way, and we want to explain to people how things really work - and how they can help.''

Collene Campbell, a POST commissioner and founder of the victims' rights group Memory of Victims Everywhere, said the tape should be of particular help to families whose children have been victimized and who are unfamiliar with the legal system.

``It's something you'll be handed to help you understand what's going on when your child lies there in a pool of blood,'' Campbell said. ``It's hard to take it all in at first. But this is something they can look at in the next day or so and be able to deal with what's happening.''

Bray said he is frustrated that POST cannot afford to provide individual videos to police agencies. The $50,000 production cost and the $6-per-tape to make new copies is prohibitive unless a corporation underwrites the cost as a community service project.

Anyone willing to pay for the cost of tape production can call POST at [phone].