Byline: Staff/Wire services; Contributing to this article was
staff writer Jim Walsh.
Neighborhood-watch volunteers are getting a new weapon for their efforts against crime:
cellular telephones.
President Clinton, eager to align himself with anti-crime initiatives, announced Wednesday that the cellular-telephone industry is donating 50,000 phones and air time to neighborhood crime-watch programs across the nation.
Surrounded by 100 volunteer crime-fighters wearing fluorescent orange hats, Clinton said, ''From now on, help will be just a phone call away.''
In about 20,000 locations nationwide, volunteers keep an eye on neighborhoods and report problems to local police or fire departments.
Richard Fox, president of the Phoenix Block Watch Advisory Board, said the new program could be a boon to the city's 1,700 block-watch groups.
Although he did not know whether Phoenix would receive any of the phones, Fox said he is especially interested in the free air time that is part of the program.
In the past, it was possible to get the telephones as a donation, but the cost of the air time was prohibitive for some associations, he said.
Many associations already have obtained phones through grants from Proposition 301, a sales-tax increase approved by voters three years ago for anti-crime programs.
Getting the phones, he said, would increase the enthusiasm of people in block-watch programs.
''The more convenient you make it, the more likely people are to do it,'' Fox said. ''I don't think anyone should be on patrol without a phone in their car.''
The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, a trade group for wireless carriers, will provide phones and free air time to groups certified by the Community Policing Consortium. The consortium includes police groups and a Justice Department community-policing agency.
The telephones will be preprogrammed to local law-enforcement or emergency numbers.
Federal money is not involved. But White House officials said that Vice President Al Gore asked the industry to help out in June, and Clinton urged citizens in May to join block- watch groups.
With polls showing crime to be a major issue among voters, White House aides have produced several tough-on-crime initiatives for the Democratic president to endorse.
Most of the programs cost little and require no legislative action, including Clinton's recent promotion of teen curfews, school uniforms and a plan to track firearms used by juveniles.
Republicans traditionally have portrayed theirs as the true anti-crime party.