"Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com> (08/07/90)
For those who have contributed and been interested in the
issues surrounding payphones and ghettodrug dealing, here's a recap
just published in <Communications News> for August, 1990:
"Payphones are Newest Battleground in Drug War"
"Removing or altering pay telephones is becoming a weapon
against drug dealers in California and elsewhere.
"Dealers in many neighborhoods have turned the phones into
on-street offices, taking orders around the clock. They prefer
payphones to cellular or home phones because of the anonymity and
difficulty in tracking calls.
"The Los Angeles Times reports that fed-uip residents are
pressuring telephone companies into doing something.
"Residents' first choice is the have telephones removed, but
telcos, hardly eager to lose revenue, resist removal.
"They prefer to alter them so they will not take incoming
calls, or to substitute rotary dials for touchtone.
"In California, Pacific Bell blocked incoming calls to 1,000
payphones. It operates 120,000 of the total 200,000 in California.
Ten percent of Seattle's payphones are limited to outgoing calls.
Other cities are seeing similar efforts.
"No one argues that targeting the payphones makes a difference
in the total number of drug sales. But police say they can see a
change in a neighborhood as soon as drug dealers lose their important
tools.
"In one area of Los Angeles, police say, drug sales plummeted
80% to 90% after a dozen payphones were removed.
"In Washington, D.C., Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone removed
37 payphones in various neighborhoods, phones whose yearly revenue
averaged well over $3,500 each. But the company lost no money by
blocking incoming calls at 113 other phones.
"Thomas Keane, president of the California Payphone
Association, says there may be an answer in improved technology.
"Payphones that can be programmed to track calls and give
detailed records could aid police, says Keane. That would discourage
dealers' heavyuse of the phones."
--------------
So there you have one summary. Interesting to note that at some
places, it seems residents have stated they wouldn't miss the payphone
if it means getting rid of dealers, while we've so often assumed that
lower-income areas needed the payphone for a lifeline. And, of
course, establishing the "technology" to trap and trace calls from
payphones is not a major project to realize, either.