Natural Perspectives

Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray

You may have received a postcard from the cops recently. The

Huntington Beach Police Department mailed the cards to let us know that

they are installing Teleminder, a new automated telephone service that

can provide us with improved crime notification or important information

in the event of a disaster. The system has pros and cons. Some will

welcome this new service, but others may believe that it smacks of

intrusion by Big Brother.

Teleminder is a sophisticated automated telephone system. The neat

thing about it is that it comes with a computerized mapping feature. It

allows the police to send telephone calls to specifically targeted

geographic areas during emergencies.

This system does exactly what those awful automatic telemarketing

calls do. The phone rings, we pick up, but no one is there. Instead, we

get a recorded message. But instead of trying to sell us time-share

vacation condos or asking us to refinance our house, a call from the cops

may actually benefit us. Here’s how.

During past emergencies, it was clearly impossible for our police

department to call citizens to let them know what was going on. Now they

can, using the Teleminder system. This system can call 960 residents or

businesses per hour with a 30-second prerecorded message. The police

department expects this new service will aid in crime notification and

prevention, as well as during natural disasters.

Teleminder can send emergency messages to specifically targeted

neighborhoods and is already in use by many police departments throughout

California. For example, in 1999, the Modesto Police Department used its

Teleminder system to quickly alert nearly 2,000 residents and businesses

within a half-mile radius of where an important clue was found in the

murder of a woman, her daughter, and an Argentine student who disappeared

near Yosemite.

Here’s an example of how our police department might use Teleminder.

Say a particular neighborhood is experiencing an unusually high number of

daytime residential burglaries, car break-ins, or thefts from mailboxes.

A detective would use Teleminder to mark the affected neighborhood on a

map. Then the detective would record a message informing residents of the

recent crimes, providing tips on how to prevent such crimes, and

requesting that citizens call police if a suspicious person is in their

neighborhood. Teleminder would send this message to everyone in the

neighborhood who is in its database.

Teleminder also could be used to inform store employees of crime

events such as in-progress mall shoplifting sprees. In the event of

hostage or bomb situations, the system can be used to inform people of

safe exit routes.

In the case of a missing or kidnapped child or Alzheimer’s patient,

the system could send emergency messages with a description of the

missing person or suspected abductor, asking people to call the police if

they see anyone fitting the description.

If a yard-to-yard search is necessary, Teleminder could call all

residents who are in the affected area, providing them with information

about what is happening and asking them to call in their dogs, lock their

doors and turn on their porch lights. This notification service may

reduce risk of injury to both citizens and officers, and will allow the

cops to do their job more safely and efficiently.

The only problem is, what if that yard-to-yard search is at 3 a.m.? Do

we really want the phone ringing then?

In the event of natural disasters such as earthquake, flood, fire, or

other disasters such as chemical spills, Teleminder could alert people in

the affected area and provide emergency information, evacuation

instructions, or survival procedures. Again, there’s a drawback. In the

case of a citywide emergency, with a calling capacity of 960 calls per

hour, it would take 4 days to alert the entire city, even calling around

the clock. Still, wouldn’t some notification be better than none?

There are obviously plusses and minuses to this system, but we believe

the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. There’s only one hitch. If your

number is unlisted, or if your address isn’t listed in the phone book,

then the Teleminder service won’t be available to you without special

action on your part. Some will say “good,” but we think most people will

want to avail themselves of this service.

If your phone number is listed in the phone directory along with your

address, you’re already in the Teleminder system. But if it isn’t and you

would like to be included in this new emergency notification system,

simply send an e-mail with your name, your telephone number, and your

address, including the ZIP code, to the Community Liason Team at o7

https://[email protected] or Community Services Specialist Suzie

Wajda at (714) 536-5933. They need your address and ZIP code because

Teleminder uses a sophisticated mapping feature to precisely pinpoint

which citizens to notify in an emergency.

You can trust the cops to maintain security; they won’t sell the list

to those time-share condo salespeople. We believe that Teleminder is a

small but important step toward better communication between the police

department and the community. How can that be a bad thing?

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at o7 [email protected] .