PLATFORM : Dial the Crooks Out

We believe that removing pay phones is not going to stop criminal activity. It will just move it down the street or move it to another technology.

However, we’re satisfied with this ordinance. We worked very hard with the city to come up with an ordinance that balances the legitimate needs of the community with the needs of law enforcement.

We feel that to try mitigation efforts before phones are removed is the best way to approach the problem: Move the phones inside, move them to a more secure location or to where there’s high pedestrian traffic, increase the lighting, remove the enclosures so they’re less private, reduce the number of phones in a cluster. And we can remove the ability of a touch-tone phone to provide (all) touch-tone services. Removing a phone should be a last resort.