Residents and Police Connect Via Computer

Westside Neighborhood Watch groups have discovered a new meeting place--cyberspace.

In the past, residents participating in Neighborhood Watch groups, and police trying to set up the programs, would swap information by mail, by telephone and in small gatherings.

But now, residents of Marina del Rey, Venice, Mar Vista, Playa Del Rey and Westchester can communicate among themselves and with police through a computer at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Pacific Division.

The heart of the system is an electronic “bulletin board” connected to a computer in the Pacific Division’s community relations office. Through it, police can answer residents’ questions and distribute Neighborhood Watch information, said Venice resident Andrea DeFlyer, who came up with the idea.

DeFlyer said the department’s need for a computer became clear to her when her Venice home was burglarized and she went to the Pacific Division to file a report. Police had to take the report in longhand.

So DeFlyer persuaded her boyfriend, Michael Rosenthal, who owns a security business, to donate a Compaq Presario computer and modem to the Pacific Division’s community relations department.

Now, for instance, the Pacific Division’s newsletter, “Pacific Beacon,” can be sent through the computer instead of being mailed to households--saving money and possibly increasing the readership, Rosenthal said.

“In an emergency you still call 911, but sometimes you just want to drop (the officers) a note. This makes telephones almost archaic,” he said.

And although the system is just getting underway, already computer users are jumping on the free, on-line system. Recently, a resident sent a computer message praising the joint crime-fighting efforts of the police and residents in a Venice neighborhood.

“The police rousted the normal deadbeats and they have not returned,” the unnamed resident wrote. “The signs and calls to police made the place uncomfortable for them. This is true community-based policing.”

Police said that eventually, they hope to set up a system under which police could electronically flash a suspect’s description to area residents.

To register to use the system, call (310) 577-6515 by modem and access the Security World BBS on-line system. Twenty-four hours after registering, residents--using the same telephone number--can access a dozen electronic Neighborhood Watch “folders,” including “Meet the LAPD” and “Community Meeting Schedules.”