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NORTH VANCOUVER
City residents who face
higher crime rates than their
counterparts living in the
neighboring municipality of
North Vancouver District
have a crime-fighting com-
puter at their disposal, but
they aren’t using it, accord-
ing to a Nerth Vancouver
RCMP spokesman.

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MEMBERS OF the North Vancouver RCMP community policing department run through the North
Vancouver Block Watch program computer fan-out system auto-dialer. The system automatically

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By Michael Becker
News Reporter

The 17,000 members of the
North Vancouver Block Watch
program are plugged into a com-
puter fan-out system auto-dialer.

Said North Vancouver RCMP
Const. Marty Blais, ‘What it
basically is, is a computer that has
all of the Block Watch partici-
pants in its memory bank.

“Let's say we perceive a prob-
Jem in a certain area. We can
isolate this area with the com-
puter, program a message within
the computer and a voice. syn-
thesizer will ai a preset time send
a message and warn people about
things like a possible burglar in
the neighborhood.

“We will broadcast as much in-
formation as is legally available to
the public to try to do a little bit
of crime-fighting and detection in

NEWS photo Mike Wakeflold

contacts members of the Block Watch program to offer timely crime alert bulletins.

terms of helping the police,” he
added.

in a case where a child is
reported missing, the police can
broadcast an alert.

Added Blais, ‘Where there is a
dangerous offender on the loose,
we can broadcast that to the peo-
ple and advise them to stay inside
and to not tet anybody out
because the police are looking for
a dangerous individual.”

Blais said the system enlarges
the area of public responsibility by
showing people what to look for.

But he said he is disappointed
that few people living in North
Vancouver City are involved in
the program.

“This system is. available to
everyone who wants to join Block
Watch. But it seems that in the
highest crime area — the city —
we .have (fewer) people involved
and they are the ones who need

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more of this program.

“Why not join? It’s free. 1
would encourage people to contact
the Block Watch program,’' he
said.

The software for the computer
alert program was developed’ in
Los Angeles.

Local police are broadcasting
daily alerts in problern areas.

Said Blais, ‘‘What we’re trying
to do is avoid the deterioration of
neighborhood and urban decay.

“By passing that information to
people it is now team policing be-
tween the community and police.
The people really like getting in-
formation. You are a step ahead
of a possible offender. You know
that he could be coming to your
neighborhood to create a little
havoc.”’

For more information about
Block Watch and the computer
alert program, call 985-1311. -

Speaker heads for space

A large asteroid striking Earth
with enough impact to cause
global mass extinction on a
scale similar to the extinction
of the dinosaurs over 65 mil-
lion years ago. In our lifetime?

The Geological Survey of
Canada (GSC) is inviting the
public to join Richard Grieve,
a geologist with the GSC, as he
explains the probability of such
an impact on the earth.

The lecture, which is free,
takes place at 7:30 p.m. on

Monday, Feb. | at the H.R.
MecMillan Planetarium, 1100
Chestnut St. in Vancouver.

Organizers say Dr. Grieve
will deliver a seat-gripping lec-
ture, which will take listeners ©
asteroid travelling through
space,

Dr.- Grieve will describe the:
origins, routes, and devastating .
impacts of unguided celestial
missiles. :

For more information call
736-4431.

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