Long Arm of Fax Machine Collars Japanese Crooks

When a car was stolen west of Tokyo not long ago, police used an unusual crime-fighting tool to help track it down. They alerted local gas stations by fax, and quickly caught the thief.

Under the F Net system, police across Japan are asking local companies to register their fax numbers with a special network offered by Japan’s national telephone company.

When a crime occurs, police then can send information to F Net participants--including cab companies, gas stations, hospitals and supermarkets--that might help them catch the suspect.

Takeshi Nishiyama, a police official in Fukui prefecture west of Tokyo, said the system that links his office to 300 local sites has led to arrests in three car-theft cases since its inauguration in his state in October, 1989.

In all of the cases, police sent information on the stolen vehicles to participants. Arrests were made within two hours of return calls from participants--including two gas stations--that had spotted the stolen cars.

While crime rates remain low in Japan compared to other industrialized countries, Nishiyama said police need all the help they can get.

“Since it is difficult these days for the police to solve crime by ourselves, we have been trying to gain understanding from the general public,” he said.

Participants who provide information leading to arrests receive a certificate of thanks from the police and a $4 telephone card. Larger rewards aren’t needed, Nishiyama said, because the Japanese are generally sympathetic to cooperating with police.

First used in 1987 in Kanagawa, the F Net today is used in 34 of the country’s 47 prefectures.

Still, the fax network is not yet a major crime-fighting tool in many of those areas.

A police official in the southern city of Hiroshima, for example, said his agency used the system in only one or two important cases a month out of an annual total of more than 8,000 cases. The network had not led to any arrests, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

National police also are looking for other high-tech solutions to crime.

A new computer graphics system is being developed, for example, to help pursue fleeing suspects, said police official Takeki Konno.

The system uses a computer to determine a suspect’s possible getaway routes, cutting by up to half the area police must scour. At least two more years of research are needed before the system can be put to practical use, Konno said.