VAN NUYS : Police to Install Voice-Mail System
Residents who want to talk to a police officer about crime problems in their neighborhoods will soon have an easier time of it, thanks to a Los Angeles City Council vote Tuesday that allows police to install a voice-mail system.
The City Council voted to grant $2,500 to put the system in the senior lead officers’ office at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Division. A senior lead officer is in charge of the Neighborhood Watch program in a given area.
The Mid-Valley Community Police Council, a community booster group, will receive the grant and give it to the division. The division also will use the money to install a paging system at the station.
The equipment will allow senior lead officers to field and respond to messages more efficiently, according to Flip Smith, the booster group’s president. Eric Rose, an aide to Councilwoman Laura Chick, said when officers are out, callers now must leave messages on an old answering machine that frequently breaks down.
When the voice-mail system is installed, police officers will be able to retrieve and return their messages from the field. The system also can be programmed to dial the homes of Neighborhood Watch participants and play a message that informs them of upcoming meetings, Smith said.
The money will come from a discretionary fund controlled by each council office that can be used for community improvement projects such as this one in Chick’s district.
Rose said the remaining $17,500 in Chick’s fund will be used to help meet unfunded needs of the LAPD’s West Valley Division.
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