The disappearance of friendly local beat officers is bemoaned the world over. One little-known reason for their disappearance is the massive amounts of paperwork just one arrest or report requires. To combat the trend, the Dutch have devised an innovative system that keeps cops on the street and lets multimedia computers perform many of those desk-bound administrative chores.
A pilot test of the new system in the Netherlands province of Friesland has put computers on street corners; citizens can walk right up to one and report a crime, much like getting cash from an ATM. In a survey taken six months into the test, 85 percent of respondents felt "very positive" about the boxes, said Friesland police spokesman Peter de Weert.
In the first month, 3,000 reports were made on just one of the computers. The public's response has been so enthusiastic that police are not even waiting for the end of the test to bring the rest of the Netherlands online. And law enforcement agencies in France, Norway, the UK, and Hungary are already looking at the system.
Bike theft, car-radio theft, and auto accidents account for most of the computer reports. The compucops, costing about 30,000 to 35,000 Dutch guilders (US$16,000 to $18,600), are built around a 486 computer. A screen displays images of lost or found items or missing or wanted people, and it allows ten categories of minor offenses to be reported. ("We would not expect someone to report a bank robbery on one," says De Weert.) Reports are simply typed into the machine - a modem switches between data and voice on the same phone line. The use of images and the ability to print out greatly improve on the simple phone: You can see the police agent you're speaking to and access material best represented visually (such as route plans, crime prevention information, forms).
To date, the only vandalism the boxes have sustained is flourishes of graffiti. Rural Holland is one thing - could it work in, say, New York? "I don't know the place well, but why not?" says De Weert. (Like he said, he doesn't know the place.) Friesland Police: +31 5897 5597.
ELECTRIC WORD
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