Transit Police Look At Text-Messaging

Tool Might Erase Intimidation Factor

Metro Transit Police are considering adding a way for train and bus riders to report crimes by sending text messages from BlackBerrys and cellphones, officials said.

Text-messaging would not replace the methods Metro advises customers to use: calling the Transit Police telephone number or alerting train operators or other Metro employees. But text-messaging tips, used by a growing number of police departments, would save time and allay the fear of retaliation many riders have when alerting bus drivers and train operators to criminal activity.

Train riders, for example, often say they are too intimidated by rowdy teenagers to report disruptive behavior to police.

"If a patron is concerned about his or her safety by getting up and going to the intercom box [in rail cars], then possibly sending a text message to Transit Police would take some of that concern away," Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn said. He described the planned addition of text-messaging as "just another tool in our toolbox to reach out to the public."

Before Metro rolls out a program for the public, Transit Police want to run a pilot using agency employees who have BlackBerrys, officials said. Fifty to 70 Metro employees have the devices, and a group will be selected to report emergencies or crimes in progress to Transit Police during their daily travels, Taborn said. Specifics will not be worked out for a few more weeks, he said.

"There will be things that we learn through the pilot," said Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein, who has an agency-issued BlackBerry. Police may be able to identify trends in incident types and locations, which may be used to adjust deployments, she said.

At the same time, she said, text messages will not replace other ways of contacting police. "People should not have the expectation that because they've typed an e-mail and pressed the 'send' button that police are automatically on the way."

Several dozen police departments, and some school systems, have been using text-messaging to build on the success of telephone tip lines and connect to young cellphone users. In New York, residents may use their cellphones to snap photos of crimes in progress and e-mail them to police. In Chicago, the police department and several public high schools launched a program last week for students who see a gun or overhear plans for after-school fights to alert authorities by text-messaging.

The Fairfax County and D.C. police departments have text-message programs that allow tipsters to send information anonymously.

Text-messaging has benefits that traditional phoning lacks: It can be done silently, and it requires less battery power than a phone call, which might mean that a text message will work when a phone battery is low.

On the rails, where the majority of serious crime occurs, only Verizon users have cellphone service underground. And even that service is limited. BlackBerry users, however, can bypass the cellphone networks because the devices operate on a proprietary network.

Although Metro's crime rate is low compared with those of surrounding jurisdictions, serious crime is increasing, reflecting regional and national trends, police officials have said.

A long-standing concern for riders and a growing problem for Metro is disruptive behavior by juveniles. Thousands of District students use Metro to go back and forth to school, and on weekday afternoons, there are complaints about eating and drinking, swearing and fighting on trains and crowded platforms.

Transit Police assign officers to patrol stations with high student ridership, including stations close to schools, such as Tenleytown and Anacostia, and transfer points such as Gallery Place and L'Enfant Plaza. In the past several years, juvenile arrests have almost doubled, and warnings have increased by more than 40 percent.

During a Metro online chat with Taborn on Friday, one Falls Church resident suggested that text-messaging could be a deterrent. If Metro Transit Police provided an e-mail address for the public, "offenders could never be certain that one of the many people texting on their phones wasn't summoning the police."

Staff researcher Eddy Palanzo contributed to this report.