UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 20, Page 3
February 20, 1992
Call Trace feature now on phones

     What can students, faculty or staff do when they receive an
obscene, harassing or threatening anonymous phone call?
     Call Trace, a service provided by Bell Atlantic, can help by
determining the source of this kind of call, enabling University
Police to investigate and take appropriate action against these
callers, according to Don Redmond, University Police captain.
     When employees or students on campus receive one of these
calls, or repeatedly receives these calls, they should call the
University Police at 831-2222. The responding officer will initiate
an investigation. The receiver of the call will be given
instructions on maintaining a log of problem calls and the access
code for Call Trace.
     When Call Trace is initiated, the  number of the caller is
recorded and forwarded to University Police. The cost  is paid by
the University.
     These kinds of calls are really hate crimes and traumatic to
those who receive them, Redmond said. Recently available, Call
Trace has been used in investigating several cases thus far. A
college campus can attract this kind of caller, Redmond said, and
once the caller taps into the system, he or she can make sequential
calls to residence halls from room to room, or may keep calling the
same person.
     "When someone reports these calls, we ask for their
cooperation in the investigation and in pressing charges against
the perpetrators," Redmond said. "We ask them to keep a log of when
the calls were made, what was said and other pertinent information.
     "Under certain conditions, a service known as Call Trap can be
placed on the telephone, which will give the time and day of the
call," he said.
     Some of these callers are really requesting help and
appropriate counseling is the outcome, Redmond said.
     Students and others living off-campus who are receiving these
kinds of calls should contact the local police department