"WASHINGTON – Big city police chiefs are backing an anti-terrorism community watch program to educate people about what behavior is truly suspicious and ought to be reported to police.
Police Chief William Bratton of Los Angeles, whose department developed the iWATCH program, calls it the 21st century version of Neighborhood Watch.
Using brochures, public service announcements and meetings with community groups, iWATCH is designed to deliver concrete advice on how the public can follow the oft-repeated post-Sept. 11 recommendation: "If you see something, say something."
Program materials list nine types of suspicious behavior that should compel people to call police and 12 kinds of places to look for it.
Among the indicators:
_If you smell chemicals or other fumes.
_If you see someone wearing clothes that are too big and too heavy for the season.
_If you see strangers asking about building security.
_If you see someone purchasing supplies or equipment that could be used to make bombs.
The important places to watch include government buildings, mass gatherings, schools and public transportation.
The program also is designed to ease reporting by providing a toll-free phone number and Internet Web page through which the public can alert authorities. Los Angeles has begun its toll-free number and planned to put its Web site up this weekend.
The Major Cities Chiefs Association, headed by Bratton and comprised of the chiefs of the 63 largest police departments in the United States and Canada, planned to endorse iWATCH at its conference in Denver on Saturday as a model for all its communities.
"It's really just common sense types of things," Bratton said.
But American Civil Liberties Union policy counsel Mike German, a former FBI agent who worked on terrorism cases, said the indicators are all relatively common behaviors. He suspects people will fall back on personal biases and preconceived stereotypes of what a terrorist looks like when making the decision to report someone to the police.
"That just plays into the negative elements of society and doesn't really help the situation," German said.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration proposed enlisting postal carriers, gas and electric company workers, telephone repairmen and other workers with access to private homes in a program to report suspicious behavior to the FBI. Privacy advocates condemned this as too intrusive, and the plan was dropped.
Bratton and LAPD Commander Joan McNamara, who developed iWATCH, say privacy and civil liberties protections are built into this program.
"We're not asking people to spy on their neighbors," McNamara said.
If someone reports something based on race or ethnicity, the police will not accept the report, and someone will explain to the caller why that is not an indicator of suspicious behavior, McNamara said.
The iWATCH program isn't the first to list possible indicators of suspicious behavior. Some cities, like Miami, have offered a public list of seven signs of possible terrorism. Federal agencies also have put out various lists over the years."

By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer

__________________
http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...7/scotflag.gif http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v.../scot2flag.gif

"If women are so bloody perfect at multitasking how come they can't have a headache and sex at the same time?"
Billy Connolly

If it's alright for the g'ment to spy on us, why shouldn't we spy on each other?

Don't like it. Don't be a patsy for the government.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

How hot would the female neighbor be?

__________________
01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

It's just a bit of common sense, but of course common sense ain't so common as they say. Reporting suspicious activity has always been a public option.

Worked in Russia, right?

__________________
83 SD

84 CD

The Germans used it to great affect to spy on those nasty sneaky Jews to...

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

My neighbor is a pretty suspicious character. Every summer she wears a bikini top to do her gardening work. I am keeping watch on her like a hawk. I'll bet she is planning something naughty. I know that under the bikini top it looks like breasts but I'll bet there is something more sinister inside. If I offered her a free breast exam, maybe I'll find out.

__________________
01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

The Germans did it with great success until the nineties: DDR. No one did it better than the Stasi, half the population was spying on the the other half, including husbands on wives and wives on husbands...

__________________
1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

Just mind your own business. If some little old lady down the street is getting her head beaten in by some thug that you witnessed prowling around her house for the past half-hour, better her than you.

You might want to find another neighbor to rat on your wife so if she catches you, the cops will already be on their way.

__________________
1984 300TD

What the hell is he ....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMqxNPsfN50

I like the idea of keeping "big government" out of my live as much as possible, so yes I think it's a great plan to give spying back to the people. Citizens spying on each other; I can only applaud it.

__________________
1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

good work, comrade. the price of liberty is eternal vigilance? extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice? oh, i forget.

__________________
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

I just want to shut mine up.....starting with the spoiled brate upstairs....

__________________
"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL