TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/111389/11138900.028

Text File | 1990-09-19 | 4KB | 64 lines

LAW, Page 77

Cops on Camera

A TV network beams crime tips to the precinct house


    Today a report from an undercover narcotics officer in Florida
on how crack cocaine is made," announces the pretty blond
co-anchor. "And verbal judo on the traffic stop: how you can defuse
a volatile situation," intones her handsome male partner over a
videotape clip of a police officer approaching a car. To the beat
of trendy theme music, the camera pans the posh living-room stage
set -- complete with sofas, coffee table and potted plants --
before zooming in again on the two radiant hosts.

    Pull over, Good Morning, America. Hands up, Today. Here comes
Roll Call with Debra Maffett and Tom Park -- the centerpiece of
LETN, the Law Enforcement Television Network, a novel, $6.5
million, 24-hour broadcast service by Westcott Communications of
suburban Dallas. LETN is beamed exclusively to law-enforcement
agencies via coded satellite signals. Its mission: to provide
police with the latest law-enforcement techniques and training,
along with the most up-to-date crime news from around the country.
Explains network President Billy Prince, a former Dallas police
chief: "There's a terrible lack of knowledge among police.
Information is changing so fast that it's impossible to keep up by
sending men to a boring seminar. We offer cost-effective bits and
pieces."

    In addition to its melange of news and features, the glitzy,
hour-long Roll Call airs a regular segment on the FBI's Most Wanted
List that, with the aid of computer graphics, profiles suspects in
various disguises -- beards, glasses and hairpieces. "We provide
officers with important information when they need it -- before
they hit the streets," says co-anchor Maffett, 1983's Miss America.
The network also serves up half-hour instruction programs with
names like Street Beat, Command Update and Alert, Alive & Well.
Relying on 50 experts nationwide, the shows dish out training
information on everything from shooting techniques and handcuffing
methods to weight-control strategies. A twelve-member news staff,
with the support of a CBS feed, punctuates the broadcast day with
regular five-minute bursts about the latest mayhem on the
crime-and-disaster front.

    LETN's audience, which so far includes 725 police agencies in
48 states, gives the network solid reviews. "It's sharpening us all
up and eliminating some schooling," says Captain Randy Stienstra
of the Mount Dora, Fla., police department. Ten states have
certified LETN as a vehicle for earning in-service training credits
for promotion. The network's original programming totals two hours
each day and is replayed continuously, allowing cops to wedge in
their viewing during off-hours. The story line is unabashedly
pro-police. "We make no apologies for it," says news director Larry
Estepa. "Police are getting beaten over the head enough."

    The network began airing in May and has yet to make it into
the black. LETN depends solely on monthly subscriber fees that
range from $288 to $588. Immediate shortfalls can be bridged by
relying on Chairman Carl Westcott's other brainchild, the
profitable Automotive Satellite Television Network, which beams the
latest sales techniques to 4,000 car dealers. LETN is betting on
a long, successful run and, like any other network, hawking its new
fall shows. Trumpets an LETN program guide: "Coming in cooperation
with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Drug Crackdown, a new
weekly program with DEA instructors, field-action footage,
investigative insights, survival tips and management strategies."
The show premieres this week. Stay tuned.