ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 18, 1997 TAG: 9703180056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON THE ROANOKE TIMES
The device allows calls to 911 that can't be monitored by police scanner.
A Rocky Mount citizen police patrol has a new weapon to fight crime: A cellular phone.
The patrol, which was organized at the Mountain View apartment complex months ago, is the first group in Western Virginia to be issued the phone and free service under the Communities on Phone Patrol program, said said town Police Chief Butch Jenkins.
The initiative was created by the cellular phone industry and endorsed by President Clinton last summer.
Town Police Lt. Roy Lemons came up with the idea of applying for the phone after reading about the patrol program.
On Monday, the phone was presented to Margaret Cooper, who leads the citizen patrol, by John Rodman, general manager of GTE Wireless of Roanoke.
The phone is programmed so patrollers only have to touch one button to access the Franklin County 911 dispatch center, Jenkins said.
In the past, patrollers have used a low-frequency radio and a cordless phone - two devices which allow others to monitor conversations with police scanners.
Cooper said troublemakers tipped by someone listening to a scanner dispersed before police arrived.
Cooper and other community volunteers patrol the five-building apartment complex off North Main Street every evening.
Other groups interested in applying for a cellular phone should contact local police departments, GTE Wireless at (540) 776-3662, or the Community Police Consortium in Washington, D.C., at (202) 833-0196.
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