Undaunted by the slogan specifics of the Crime Blocker program – “Lend Your Eyes and Ears to the Police” – several dozen deaf persons have been trained as Crime Blockers in both city and county areas.
Under this program, sponsored by the Women’s Crusade Against Crime in cooperation with city, county and municipal police departments, citizens learn how and what suspicious happenings and criminal incidents to report to their police. Their anonymity is protected by the use of coded numbers.
While most Crime Blockers report by telephone, the deaf participants will use their teletype machines. These are linked to Contact St. Louis, a special center handling all kinds of emergency calls for the deaf.
Based on the coded Crime Blocker number received, the party getting the teletyped crime report will know which police department to notify. Numbers prefixed by the letter A, for example, mean St. Louis Police; B, St. Louis County; C, Kirkwood; L, Webster Groves, KK Baldwin, etc.
According to Det. Chuck Stuart of the Webster Groves Police Community Relations Department, 17 deaf county citizens were recently trained not only for Webster, but Kirkwood, Baldwin and unincorporated St. Louis County. He was assisted in the lip-reading session by a Central Institute for the Deaf representative.
A group of deaf city residents were trained with manual language at a session held Sunday, May 18, at Union Avenue Christian Church. They joined with other members of the congregation for the program following Sunday services. Miss Eva Williams, the Crusade’s city Crime Blocker chairman, recruited the group.
Citizens desiring to join the Crime Blocker program should call the Women’s Crusade for additional information – 231-0425.
Originally published in The Paper, September 1975.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1975_09.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
